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CRM Team
Dr Emma Stone
Director & Founder
CRM and the umbrella charity Conservation Research Africa were founded by Dr Emma Stone. Emma is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the University of Bath (UK) , where she leads the Bat Conservation Research Lab and a diverse programme of applied conservation research. Emma is also a member of the IUCN hyaena specialist committee, and IUCN bat specialist committee contributing to species red list assessments for African bats. Emma directs all our programmes, and has worked in Africa since 1998. Emma's research focus is applied conservation biology with a strong emphasis on evidence based conservation, in particular human-wildlife conflict management, and mitigating the impacts of global environmental change.
Emma was a leader in some of the first experimental studies on the impact of light pollution of wildlife. Emma has published important work on human-wildlife conflict including studies on managing bats in historic buildings – work that has influenced government policy on licensing protocols for endangered species. She has also made important contributions to the limited role of mitigation in conservation and she was invited to write the first review of the effects of lighting on bats. Emma has secured over £2.8 million in funding since 2005 (1550 citations, H-Index 16).
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Email: els201@bath.ac.uk
Katheryn Leggat
PhD Student
Katheryn holds a BSc in Conservation & Countryside Management and an MSc in Wildlife Biology & Conservation. She also has 15 years’ of professional and voluntary experience as an ecologist, working primarily in the UK where she delivered the role of Associate Director and regional team leader for a global engineering and environmental consultancy. Alongside this, she sat on the board of trustees for Kent Bat Group for over eight years, where she coordinated volunteers and led local research efforts for the charity.
With a particular passion for African wildlife, Katheryn has taken numerous trips to explore the continent, supporting conservation and research projects along the way.
In 2021 she relocated to Zambia to work as the Knowledge Manager for Kasanka Trust, overseeing all planning, research, monitoring, evaluation and reporting tasks in Kasanka National Park and Kafinda Game Management Area.
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Katheryn is now excited to be pursuing a PhD at the University of Bath, working in partnership with Carnivore Research Malawi. Her research focuses on the behavioural plasticity of hyaenas, with a particular focus on how they adapt to the urban environment and how this may drive human-wildlife conflicts.
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Email: kl994@bath.ac.uk
Alessandra Metzler
Research Manager
Alessandra joins CRM with an academic background in Psychology and Anthropology, later continuing into the field of Zoology, with higher degrees from both Macquarie University and the University of New England. These experiences have given her a broad interdisciplinary perspective on conservation and its sociocultural dimensions. After a few years working in the medical field, she returned to university with the aim of combining these disciplines to develop conflict-mitigation solutions globally.
Her career has taken her across Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and eastern and southern Africa, where she has worked in wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, carnivore research, human–wildlife conflict mitigation, community-based conservation and education, anti-poaching initiatives, and wildlife trade monitoring. She has a particular interest in African carnivores and in understanding how socio-cultural contexts shape human-carnivore interactions.
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Abby Byrtus
Research Assistant
Abby, a Wildlife Biologist from the United States of America, earned her BSc from the University of Vermont in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology with a background in Community Development and Applied Economics. She has a distinct passion for teaching and served as a teaching assistant for multiple lab-based University courses.
Throughout her career she has worked in multiple disciplines within conservation, including education, wildlife rehabilitation, population monitoring, and surveying of endangered species throughout the United States, Central America, and Africa. She has a strong passion for hyena behavioural ecology, and community-based wildlife conservation and is looking forward to expanding her knowledge and skillset with her time at CRM.
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Esther Chikapa
Outreach Officer & Women in STEM Ambassador
Esther started working for CRA five years ago when she moved to Lilongwe as a cleaner and cook, and so is our longest serving member of staff. During her time with CRA her affection for bats & carnivores developed through working with the project, talking to research assistants and meeting volunteers. With the help of staff members, Esther started to become involved in the bat surveys with our sister organisation ABC, learning on the job about conservation and science.
Esther also enjoys the outreach work and is vital to our human conflict mitigation efforts. She also enjoys visiting schools and children in the communities where she can share her experience with others and teach children about carnivores and their importance in ecosystems. She is passionate about empowering girls to involve themselves in Science. Esther is currently working with CRA on fulfilling her dream to go back to school to finish her education.