The Team

Daniela Hedwig

Daniela became the director of the Elephant Listening Project in 2021. She is a behavioral and conservation biologist with more than 15 years of experience in in field-based bioacoustic research and conservation efforts in Central Africa. As project lead, Daniela aims for long-term conservation impact by combining research and capacity building in close partnership with conservation organizations on the ground to integrate monitoring efforts into ongoing conservation management strategies.

Bobbi Estabrook

Bobbi joined the team as Research Support Specialist in 2021. She conducts acoustic analyses, manages & carries out research projects and mentors the many students that join our lab each semester. Bobbi first touched base with ELP in 2007, when she attended the first ever Sound Analysis Workshop. With more than 10 years of experience using passive acoustic methods to understand the ecology of baleen whales, Bobbi’s current research focuses on the acoustic ecology of African forest elephants and the effects of human activities on their vocal behavior.

Ivonne Kienast

Ivonne joined the team in 2020 as the principal investigator of the Dzanga Forest Elephant Project. Ivonne has more than nine years of hands-on experience managing several conservation and research projects in Central Africa. Ivonne is passionate about protecting forest elephants through research and building local capacity by giving young Africans a voice in conservation. Besides managing the Dzanga Project, Ivonne is working on her PhD dissertation focused on forest elephant landscape use.

Sophie Trowbridge

Sophie joined the ELP team in 2022 as a data analyst after several years of volunteering with us. As a veterinarian focused on conservation medicine with a special interest in bioacoustics, Sophie brings a unique perspective to our work! When not listening to elephants, she enjoys hiking with her husband and their black lab Lila.

Colin Swider

Colin joined the team in 2023 after collaborating with ELP since 2017 on his dissertation research. As a data analyst Colin refines and extends our research at the landscape scale. He combines acoustic data on forest elephant and illegal gun hunting with satellite imagery analyses to construct models that shed light on forest elephant habitat use and the factors that drive poaching pressure across the landscape. His other interests include surfing and playing music with friends and family.

Nouabalé-Ndoki Acoustic Team (WCS-Congo)

These Wildlife Conservation Society researchers have been working with us for more than five years. The team is not only independently maintaining, curating, and analyzing data from our acoustic grid in northern Congo, but also regularly hosting workshops on passive acoustic monitoring for other Central African conservationists and researchers.

Left to right: Phael Malonga, Frelcia Bambi and Onesi Samba.

Dzanga Forest Elephant Project Team (WWF-CAR)

These inspiring World Wildlife Fund researchers are working hard to protect the Dzanga Bai forest elephants through research, capacity building and close engagement with their communities. Many of our team members come from the local community of indigenous Ba’Aka people and bring unique and intimate knowledge about the forest elephants to the project, especially as some have been observing the elephants at Dzanga for over 20 years!

Left to right: Jean Mobeawe, Ivonne Kienast, Jeannot Ngbanda, Michael Boungalo, Jean Marie Azobe, Isidore Yankoisse, Mireille Mozouta, Bertin Ngbonga.

Ana Verahrami

Ana began her sojourn with ELP while still an undergraduate at Cornell, quickly making herself indispensable. After assisting with the analysis of elephant vocal signals, she threw herself into preparations to help us restart the study at Dzanga. Ana recently completed her masters degree based on data from our northern Congo project. Ana is passionate about utilizing bioacoustics systems to increase our understanding of the complex relationships between anthropogenic disturbances and species’ activities, behaviors, and survival, while working in partnership with local communities using an equitable and decolonized approach.

Peter Wrege

Peter directed the Elephant Listening Project from 2007 up until recently. Over the 40 years of his career Peter spent extended field seasons managing research projects in such places as Venezuela, Panama, the Galapagos and Kenya, before finding his way to Gabon and Congo to listen to the sounds of the forest of Central Africa. With the escalating poaching pressure on forest elephants, Peter shifted much of the focus of the program toward developing acoustic-based approaches to solve practical conservation goals.

Liz Rowland

Liz has been instrumental to the success of the ELP over the past 20 years. As a true data mastermind, Liz analyzed data from sound recordings made in Central Africa, organized and archived the data, and also trained numerous volunteers to help us with data analysis. Even though she retired alongside Peter in 2021, Liz is still providing support with ongoing data analysis!

Katy Payne

Katy founded the Elephant Listening Project in 1999, after discovering and extensively studying the infrasound communication of African elephants. She founded the ELP to use these calls as a means of measuring the behavior of elephants and to monitor elephant population sizes. Her vision, her deep insights and her kindness and thoughtfulness still lay at the heart of the ELP’s efforts today.

Andrea Turkalo

From the start, ELP worked in collaboration with Andrea Turkalo, the world’s leading expert on forest elephant biology. In 1990, Andrea initiated the Dzanga Forest Elephant Study at the Dzanga Bai forest clearing, which is to date the longest continuous study of forest elephants anywhere. When she retired in 2017, she had gathered 27 years of behavioral and demographic data, as well as racks of video and sound. The world’s most complete compendium of data on forest elephants.

Isabella Eclipse
Hazel Park
Evey Schreiner
Esther Lee
Sarah_Wesley
Lisa Shreiner
Jessica Lecorchick
Jaden Jeswald
Shannon Williamson
Sarah Towne
Read Barbee
Stephanie Carmody
Rebecca DeWees
Simone Gatson
Ruby Guo
Raina Kamrat
Shashank Vura
Elise Kronbichler
Sandra Lapinska
Emma Silva
Laura Stenzler
Montana Stone
Brooke Su
Emily Thomas
Jonathan Tran
Conchita Trerise
Emma Birch
Gabrielle Hammell
Shlagha Karjee
Anisha Luthra
Teddy Matel
Sophie Rabinowicz
Leila Reines
Emily Sheerer
Shimon Shuchat
Chris Umeki
Suzan Fadelz
Gabriella Alvarez
Monica-Branca

Abbey Doyno
Rebecca Ebiana
Viridiana-Garcia
Julia-Gil
Emily Keenan
David Labib
Alan Polyak
Michelle Shin
Victor Tran
Justin Weinstock
Natasha Bartolotta
Laura Bhola
Eden Doh
Jen-Guerrero
Kiana Harrel
Becky-Higgins
Allison-Huysman
Zaynub Ibrahim
Nathalie-Lindor
Angela Lu
Liz-Wahid
Elizabeth (Lizzy)-Brooks
Zarah-Deutsch
Johnathan Gomes
Shanna Johnson
Leanna-Kelly
Megan Lee
Chaunte Lewis
Dou Mao
Elise Newman
Mieke Ruina
Emily Berman
Catie Davis
Sylvie Finn
Natalie Gonzalez
Caitlin Keeney
Sarina Pacifici
Daphne Shen
David Singler

Jennifer Stevens
Kristina Ceres
Jasmine Daniel
Maya DeBellis
Ben Fleury
Alexa Hilmer
Polly Homberg
Sarah Kim
Anastasia Melnyk
Julia Reagan
Hunter Reed
Ciara Rodriquez
Rachel Ruden
Sophie Trowbridge
Marissa Velasquez
Justin Zloty
Rachel Chuang
Simon Fines
Lucy Keeler
Gabe Lewenstein
Kate Salesin
Sarah Smith
Robbie Strom
Shanna Wade
Michelle Jang
Veronica Kim
Emily Satinsk
Sage Solomine
Jeffrey Arendash
Laura Kraznow
Kate Matera
Gita Chelluri
Katie Graziano
Michelle Mathios
Emily Peck
Stephanie-Iacovelli
Erin Allen