MBSF Personnel are actively involved in monarch research and conservation, and environmental education projects. Here are backgrounds on the people behind the scenes, with links to more information on their work.

MBSF Chairman Dr. Lincoln Brower is Research Professor of Biology at Sweet Briar College and Distinguished Service Professor of Zoology, Emeritus at the U of FL. His research interests include the overwintering and migration biology of the monarch butterfly, chemical defense, ecological chemistry, mimicry, and the conservation of endangered biological phenomena. Recipient of the Gold Medal of Zoology from the Linnean Society of London and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Animal Behavior Society, Lincoln has published many scientific papers and edited two books. As the main link between MBSF, WWF and UNAM scientists Dr. Brower has spearheaded the conservation efforts in Mexico. He is currently working with our colleagues to develop a geographic information system that will enable scientists to monitor the state of the forest and the monarch colonies in the overwintering sites.

MBSF President and Treasurer Dr. Karen Oberhauser (see picture, right - far right) directs Monarchs in the Classroom, a program that brings inquiry-based science, conservation, and research to K-12 classrooms. She is an Assistant Professor in the U of MN Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, and has been studying monarchs since 1984. Her research focuses on monarch reproduction, disease ecology, and genetics. Together with graduate student Michelle Prysby, she has organized the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project, a citizen science project that involves volunteers from across the United States and Canada in long-term data colelction on larval monarch populations and milkweed habitat. She advises several graduate students, and works hard to forge connections between the university and pre-college worlds by working with teachers and pre-college students in Minnesota and throughout the US. Karen writes: "I am becoming more and more concerned with the impacts humans have on monarchs and other organisms, and with the precarious balance between human needs and the needs of the species with which we share the planet. Only by learning as much as we can about our fellow earth-inhabitants and then sharing what we discover can we tip the balance in a direction that will be better for all of us."

MBSF Secretary Elizabeth Howard (see picture, right - 2nd from left) is the founder and director of Journey North, a science education program that uses the Internet to track migration and the seasons. Students share observations of monarch butterflies—and birds, mammals, the budding of plants, and changes in nature. Says Elizabeth of this work, "What excites me most is to know that children are truly looking at nature. Today so many children grow without ever planting a flower or experiencing nature first hand. For me, perhaps the most uplifting sign of success was to hear a teacher say her student won't mow the lawn anymore before checking every milkweed plant for monarch eggs!" Elizabeth has a background in environmental education, conservation and wildlife research. She worked with the Nature Conservancy for ten years and on several field projects, studying moose, Caspian terns and tigers. Elizabeth is a native of Minnesota and graduate of the University of Vermont.

After years of working in the computer field, MBSF's coordinator of international research and conservation Monica Missrie’s (see picture, above - left) life changed in 1997 when she went to Angangueo, Michoacan with Lincoln Brower. Here Monica describes the experience: "Little did I know that I would end up working to ensure the long-term survival of the monarch butterfly’s overwintering phenomenon. In May, 1998 I began working with WWF/MBSF in Mexico City on a project to determine optimal monarch butterfly overwintering habitat which culminated in the expansion of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.” Currently, Monica is in the Conservation Biology Program at the University of Minnesota working on a PhD and continues to collaborate with MBSF.

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