Faculty & Staff

UF Wildlife Forensic Sciences & Conservation Faculty

UF Wildlife Forensic Sciences Faculty MemberAcademic Qualifications: Dr. Cooper originally trained as a British veterinary surgeon (veterinarian). He graduated in veterinary science and gained his MRCVS at the University of Bristol in 1966. He is a member of a husband and wife team. His wife, Mrs Margaret E Cooper, LLB, FLS, is a lawyer who trained originally as a British solicitor and has made the study of animal and conservation law her special interest.

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Craig du Plooy, M. Com. Information Systems (Forensics) (Honors)

UF Wildlife Forensic Sciences Faculty MemberAcademic Qualifications: Craig du Plooy has a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) Information System Forensics degree and an Honors degree in Information Systems from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He has over 15 years of experience in digital forensics, visual data analytics, information security, penetration testing and vulnerability assessments.

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Joseph Rivera, JD

Joseph RiveraAcademic Qualifications: Joseph Rivera served as an officer in the US Army for about 14 years, and is a graduate of Marion Military Institute where he earned an Associates in military science, Oregon State University (Bachelor of Science in Psychology), Tiffin University (Master’s of Science in Criminal Justice with an emphasis in criminal behavior), University of Mississippi School of Law with a juris doctorate and a concentration in business law, and Utica College with a certificate in financial crime investigations.

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Adrienne Brundage, Ph.D.

UF Wildlife Forensic Sciences Faculty Member

Academic Qualifications: Dr. Brundage is a forensic entomologist currently residing in Texas. She received her PhD in entomology from Texas A&M University, and has worked as a forensic entomologist in both California and Texas since 1999. In addition to case work, Dr. Brundage works as a professor of entomology, and has taught various entomological and forensic courses at San Jose State University, Texas A&M University, and Baylor University.

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Ngaio Richards, Ph.D.

Ngaio Richards pic Academic Qualifications: Ngaio Richards is a wildlife biologist and detection dog handler whose work involves bridging the gap between those who specialize either in the repercussions of pesticides, or of veterinary agents, on wildlife as well as those who work in field and analytical settings. She is also the Forensics & Field Specialist for Working Dogs for Conservation, a nonprofit in Montana.

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Lee Burton

Lee Burton picAcademic Qualifications: Lee Burton is the owner of Naturalist Ventures and an accomplished outdoorsman and naturalist, providing instruction for a variety of field skills topics including wildlife tracking and avian communications (bird language). He teaches undergraduate and graduate students internationally, both online and in person.

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Nicole Chinnici

Nicole Chinnici pic Academic Qualifications: Nicole Chinnici is the laboratory director of the Northeast Wildlife DNA Laboratory, home of the PA Tick Research Lab. Nicole is a certified wildlife forensic scientist with six years of research experience overseeing and conducting tick testing and analyses. She also handles various types of wildlife forensic casework, creates and monitors wildlife forensic databases and develops and optimizes PCR and multiplex PCR protocols for species identification and genotyping.

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Jeff Rodzen, Ph.D.

Jeff Rodzen

Academic Qualifications: Jeff Rodzen is originally from New England and earned a B.S. in Environmental Science with a concentration in marine ecology at the University of Maine.  He then continued on to the University of California, Davis where he earned a Ph. D. in Genetics while studying the genetics of the octoploid white sturgeon, focusing on the management of both wild and farm-raised sturgeon.  He then worked for the California Dept. of Fish and Game’s Wildlife Forensics Laboratory for about 12 years where he performed wildlife forensic casework while advancing the use of DNA in wildlife forensic science.

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AnnMarie Clark, M.S.

UF Wildlife Forensic Sciences Faculty MemberAcademic Qualifications: AnnMarie Clark spent 18 years with the University of Florida managing a wildlife genetics laboratory that focused on population and conservation genetics, as well as training graduate students in the fine arts of non-lethal sample collection, how to process their own samples in the laboratory, and data collection and analysis.

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