The Heart

Christa Rose is the founder and director of Northeastern Puma Project. A native of the northeastern U.S., she earned her bachelor’s degree in Forestry and Wildlife Resources: Wildlife Management from Virginia Tech, and master’s in Conservation Biology from Columbia University, graduating from the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leader program soon thereafter. A lover of fieldwork and cultural immersion, rounded out with lab, office, and people time, Christa is deeply tied to land and has long felt the void of these missing animals. With 10 years of experience at 3 AZA-accredited zoological institutions, and multiple stints of wildlife service at and in collaboration with federal, state, and municipal agencies, Christa bridges many aspects of wildlife conservation, including her own independent research. With a particular focus on cat conservation and imperiled species, but a global mindset, she counts a remarkable lineage of biologists threaded through the State of New York as role models, who have largely worked internationally. She thinks it’s high time we aim energy at the open wound of America’s eastern woods, and beyond: carnivore eradication.