Staff

With ideas of being a journalist like Kate Adie when she was younger, Kathy now says that she is in her dream job working with the ‘can do’ attitude of Froglife staff and actively contributing something positive through our conservation work. Born in South Africa, Kathy’s first experience with frogs was also the first time she saw rain – the downpour brought out hundreds of happy frogs who’d been in hiding during the dry weather. Her favourite reptiles are lizards.

Her final thesis took her to the Russian steppe to study the critically endangered siaga antelope and its relationship with local people.
Before coming to Froglife she worked for a community development association on the south coast, her role as Open Spaces Development Worker involved engaging the local community with their environment. Projects included increasing access of BME communities to the newly formed South Downs National Park, creating a vibrant community garden with wildlife pond from disused land and fundraising for a new outdoor classroom at a local recreation ground.
Jenny manages the education work at Froglife and is the lead contact for working with local schools through our Leapfrog Schools project, to inspire a new generation with amphibians and reptiles. She feels that fostering an interest in wildlife from a young age is critical for conservation in the long-term.

This involved examining the population dynamics of adults within ponds, juveniles during their terrestrial phase and investigating the impacts of predators on embryo and larval survival. Following this, Laurence undertook an internship with the Amphibian Specialist Group (ASG) and International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) re-assessing the status of priority amphibian species in Peru. This resulted in a publication in Tropical Conservation Science in 2015 (http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/194008291500800304). Laurence is also collaborating with the IUCN and specialists in Brazil to re-assess Data Deficient species in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil.
Prior to joining Froglife, Laurence worked in environmental ecotoxicology with a particular interest in the impacts of pesticides on amphibian populations. He is currently developing links with the Institute for Agri Food Research and Innovation (IAFRI) and the University of Newcastle to investigate movement patterns of great crested newts in agricultural habitats.
Laurence currently manages the amphibian and reptile conservation projects at Froglife. He is interested in a wide range of issues relating to amphibian and reptile conservation and in developing and leading conservation and research across the UK and abroad.

As a young lad, James joined the RAF in order to see the world and in his ten years was fortunate enough to complete tours in destinations such as Arizona, Ohio, North America, the Falkland Islands, Ascension Island and Turkey. Unfortunately, he also completed a tour in Norfolk. James enjoys being outside and getting his hands dirty and his role within Froglife enables him to do this on a daily basis.  James loves the variety of his role within Froglife – working outdoors with people! James is unsure which of our species is his favourite – he likes the natterjack toad, but then… he likes the adder too. But which is best? There’s only one way to find out…FIGHT!!!

Gail started her career with 15 years in Finance before deciding to make a career change.  She has a BSc First Class Honours in Countryside Management from the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. Gail’s first job on completing her degree was the translocation of Great Crested Newts for an ecology practice. Gail then worked as a Farm Education Development Intern at a Country Park in Hertfordshire before heading to the Isle of Wight and Dorset to become and Field Studies Instructor for PGL.  Her last position before coming to Froglife was as an Educational Forest Ranger in Hampshire.

She completed her volunteer training and went on to volunteer on various other projects such as ‘My Wild Life’ She won a Green Award in 2013 for her contributions to Froglife and was also a runner-up for Young Person of the Year. Becoming pregnant with her daughter put her volunteering on hold for a while, but she started again in late 2015 helping out on the Leapfrog Schools Project.

She enjoys gaining new practical skills, working with volunteers and especially engaging with children about the natural environment and the fascinating wildlife that can be found there.

Vicky has always been interested in reptiles and amphibians, however, this interest really grew when she went to Trinidad to carry out amphibian research with Professor Roger Downie, one of Froglife’s trustees. Vicky has an undergraduate degree in Zoology from the University of Glasgow and an MSc in Biological Photography and Imaging from the University of Nottingham. After her MSc she went on to work as a graphic designer for Scottish Natural Heritage and a science communicator for Setpoint Scotland before doing a PhD in amphibian conservation at the University of Manchester and Chester Zoo. Most of Vicky’s work with amphibians has been with tropical tree frogs out in Belize, Trinidad and Ecuador, however she is just as fascinated by our own native species here in the UK. Her favourite amphibian species is the Black-eye Tree Frog (from Central America) and her favourite UK species is the Slow-Worm. Antwis, Haworth, Engelmoer, Ogilvy, Fidgett, Preziosi. 2014. Ex situ Diet Influences the Bacterial Community Associated with the Skin of Red-Eyed Tree Frogs (Agalychnis callidryas). PLoS ONE 9(1)Ogilvy, V. Preziosi, R. F., Fidgett, A. L. 2012. A brighter future for frogs? The influence of carotenoids on the health, development and reproductive success of the red-eye tree frog. Animal Conservation 15(5): 1469-1795Ogilvy, V, Fidgett, A. L., Preziosi, R. F. 2012. Differences in carotenoid accumulation among three feeder-cricket species: implications for carotenoid delivery to captive insectivores. Zoo Biology 31(4): 480-488Ogilvy, V., Preziosi, R. F. 2012. Can carotenoids mediate the potentially harmful effects of ultraviolet light in Silurana (Xenopus) tropicalis larvae? Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition. 96(4): 693-699.

She has a BSc Honours in Zoology from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Ecological Management from Imperial College of Science and Technology, London.  Caroline has previously worked mainly in the marine sector for a number of organisations including CEFAS as a Scientific Officer, Queen’s University Belfast researching the condition of Horse Mussels (Modiolus modiolus) in Strangford Lough and as a Project Officer at the Institute of Aquaculture within the University of Stirling. Caroline’s favourite encounter with reptiles was as an undergraduate student when she spent the summer on the island of Crete working for the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece with Loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta). Her current favourite UK amphibian has to be the smooth newt but she thinks they are all pretty cool!

He has held several positions previously with the RSPB in Wales, Cumbria and Lancashire where the majority of his time was spent surveying for breeding wading birds.  Before joining Froglife, he was employed as an assistant ecologist for over a year surveying for a variety of wildlife from birds to bats, amphibians to reptiles and dormice to badgers.  James has also been involved in voluntary projects in Israel and the Seychelles.  His favourite reptile is the common lizard because they look like they don’t want to be messed with!

He studied Marine Biology at the University of Stirling, while there he was involved with several societies and sport clubs and it is from this involvement that he became interested in events and public engagement. From this new interest Alasdair decided to go and study events management at Robert Gordon University so that he could try and combine his two interests: events and conservation. After studying events management for a year Alasdair enrolled on an MSc at Edinburgh Napier University and is currently finishing off his MSc project. He also volunteers for various organisations in Scotland such as SUSTRANS, BDMLR and Scottish Badgers. He is looking forward to working with Froglife as the SDF Project Officer Trainee as he gets to combine his two passions of helping conserve our natural environment while engaging with the public on how they can help our native amphibians and reptiles. He is also looking forward to learning more about the reptiles and amphibians that can be found in Scotland.

Alongside the course he spent much of his time volunteering for charities such as the Wildlife Trust, National Trust and The Great Fen Project, whilst also volunteering at his children’s school, helping out with their forest school and at a Duke of Edinburgh Award group. His favourite native reptile species is the adder, as its difficult to find, but once he finds them he says he could spend hours observing them.

He went on to study A BTEC Extended Diploma in Countryside Management at Shuttleworth College. During his time there he completed a work placement at Hampton Nature Reserve, where he carried out a variety of practical tasks as well as monitoring the effects of pond restoration on stonewort populations.  After leaving college he continued to gain conservation experience through a variety of paid and voluntary positions with the Wildlife Trust, Froglife, ecological consultancies and landscape managers. The experience gained was wide-ranging, including assisting with surveys of great crested newt, translocating protected plant species, recording vegetation quadrats as well as practical grassland and tree management. Always happiest when outdoors with a chainsaw or digger, Alex is also enjoying the opportunity the traineeship provides to teach people about wildlife in a fun way.

Freshwater ecology and amphibians have always been a particular passion for Katie, with the great crested newt being her favourite species. In addition to consultancy work Katie has held volunteer positions with organisations including The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, The Natural History Society of Northumbria and The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust with a focus on habitat creation, conservation and management.

When not working he spent much of his time as a practical wildlife volunteer for the London Wildlife Trust, doing anything from leading groups of volunteers on corporate work days to light construction work building bird hides and pond decking.  Michael decided to take a career break in 2011 to bring up his two children during which time, in a bid to take his career in a new direction, he has recently completed an Environmental Science degree with the Open University. However, he has maintained a passion for technical challenges. For part of his degree he developed the “Bufocam” automated camera and data logging system in collaboration with Dr Silviu Petrovan. He is now exploring road tunnel usage further with the Internship. The Common Toad is his favourite amphibian species, but only by a small margin, he is very happy to be recording frogs and newts too.