People
Instructors
Dominique Fleitas
Host and Instructor
Assistant Curator of the Louisiana Swamp Exhibit and Jaguar Jungle,
Dominique grew up in South Louisiana with a passion for the diverse and vibrant ecosystem that surrounds her and this love for nature led her to begin her professional journey in 2006 when she joined the Louisiana Swamp Exhibit at the Audubon Zoo and has spent over 16 years working there with North American river otters along with other native species. Due to seasonal flooding and human encroachment many orphaned otter pups from the southern regions of Louisiana have been brought to Audubon Zoo over the years and as a result, she has been hand-rearing pups since 2008, which was the year she attended the Otter Keeper Workshop. In 2019, she was appointed as a North American river otter representative for the Otter Education Advisory Group, in 2021 Dominique was appointed as the Vice Program Leader for the North American River Otter SSP and in 2023 was appointed as the North American River Otter & Neotropical Otter Rehabilitation Scientific Advisor for the North American Otter Chronicles. She is very excited that Audubon Zoo is hosting the workshop this year and is thrilled to be able to share her city with fellow otter lovers!
David serves as the Species Survival Plan (SSP) Coordinator for the North American river otter, as NARO Studboook Keeper and as Small Carnivore TAG Chair. He has maintained the North American River Otter Studbook for the last twenty years. He is also a member of the IUCN Otter Specialist Group and its OZ Task Force. He has been an instructor and/or an organizer for each of the previous Otter Keeper Workshops. He is the General Curator at the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, NY where among many other animals they have two North American river otters. David is also an Adjunct Instructor at the Rochester Institute of Technology where he has taught General Biology Lab and Zoo Internship courses.
Kimberly Treiber
Zoo Nutritionist
I earned my PhD at Virginia Tech in Equine Nutrition and Exercise Physiology and joined the Zoo World as a Sue Crissey Animal Nutrition Resident at Fort Worth Zoo where I worked as a Nutritionist until moving to Miami to become the first Zoo Nutritionist at Zoo Miami. With Miami’s commitment to otters it seemed logical (and fun) to offer my support to the otter nutrition team.
Sarah Duncan
Keeper
Sarah Duncan started her career wanting to be a dolphin trainer, only to discover a love of otters while interning at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida. In 2004 she began working at the Newport Aquarium with Asian Small-clawed otters (Aonyx cinerea). During her years there, she worked with nearly 30 ASC otters, including the 19 offspring of one breeding pair. Sarah is the SSP coordinator and the AZA studbook keeper for this species. She served as the International Studbook keeper for the species from 2007 to 2022. Currently Sarah is a keeper at the Tulsa Zoo in Oklahoma. She has advised facilities worldwide on the behavior and husbandry of Asian Small-clawed otters. She was an attendee in 2006 and has served as an instructor at each workshop since 2008.
Barbara Henry
Curator of Nutrition
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden (CZBG)
Barbara has been in Cincinnati since the mid- 2005 and prior to that at the Brookfield Zoo for 10 ½ years. She has been one of the small carnivore TAG /otter nutrition advisors since 1999. Barbara oversees developing, implementing and supervising all aspects of nutrition, nutrition records, food safety/handling, and quality control. Barbara works in teams on browse and growing of the hay. Barbara has served on the AZA Nutrition Advisory Group (NAG) steering committee since 2001, and was Chair of the NAG twice, between 2004-2006 and 2008-2014. Barbara helped in the formation of the Zoo and Wildlife Nutrition Foundation that began in 2009 and is currently on the board of directors as the president. In addition to her working as an advisor for Otters, Barbara is a nutrition advisor for Red Panda SSP, Okapi SSP, Gibbon SSP, Bonobo SSP, Colobus SSP, and Piciformes TAG.
Tammy Schmidt
Assistant Director
Tammy has been privileged to be part of multiple zoological teams throughout the United States. She has worked with North American river otter, Giant otters and Asian small clawed otters. Tammy has served as an instructor/presenter for the Otter Keeper Workshop for the last five workshops and contributes as an administrator to the OKWS Facebook Page. She has also been a contributor to the Summary of Husbandry Guidelines for Giant Otters in Zoos, Aquariums, and Wildlife Sanctuaries for IUCN/SSC Otter Specialist Group, OZ Task Force. In 2017 Tammy was invited to participate in the 1st International Giant Otter Workshop in Cali, Colombia. Tammy has also had the honor to be accepted to participate as a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission/IUCN SSC Otter Specialist Group and serves as the team leader. Although Tammy loves all otters, giant otters are her favorite.
Amanda Foltz
Curator of Mammals and Reptiles
Amanda got her start working with exotic animals after attending Moorpark College’s Animal Training and Management Program. Her early years were focused on marine mammal training primarily with cetaceans. Amanda has been at Mote Aquarium for nearly 13 years and as the Curator of Mammals and Reptiles she oversees the care and training of Florida Manatees, North American river otters, sea turtles, American alligator, Roseate spoonbills, and other reptile species. Having never worked with otters previously Amanda was able to be a part of the entire process of bringing otters to Mote in 2015 (exhibit design, animal acquisition, animal introductions, and establishing behavioral management and enrichment programs). Within the first year of having an established program, Mote started a behavioral research project focusing on behavioral flexibility in North American river otters, and is currently progressing their research project to explore observational learning. Amanda has attended the 2016 and 2018 OKWS and is excited to continue to be involved- particularly with sharing her passion for training and enrichment.
Rebecca Westover
Curator of Endotherms and Ambassador Animals
Loveland Living Planet Aquarium
Rebecca has been working with otters on and off since 2010. During her career she has had the privilege to work with several species of otters but specializes in North American River Otters. Rebecca has a strong interest in training and has been lucky enough to work with and train a variety of species throughout her career including marine mammals, bears, and elephants. She also enjoys helping facilities develop otter training programs and has expertise in establishing safe free contact training programs. She is currently the chair of the Otter Education Advisory Group which is an AZA committee dedicated to providing support to facilities that are working to promote otter education and conservation. Rebecca is also the education advisor for both the NARO and ASCO SSP programs.
Gwen Myers DVM,
Chief Animal Health
Dr. Myers is highly involved in the national zoological medical community. She is the Veterinary Advisor for the North American river otter. She has a passion for conservation research and fieldwork and serves as a Volunteer Veterinarian for the United States Geological Survey in Alaska. Dr. Myers was an Adjunct Professor at the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine and a guest lecturer for the College’s Preventative Medicine program. She is a frequent presenter at the annual American Association of Zoo Veterinarians conference.
Aubrey Theiss
Animal Care Specialist,
For the past eleven years, Aubrey has been working in animal care with a variety of marine mammal and bird species including NARO and sea otters. She is the aquarium’s program lead for NARO. Every month, she joins the aquarium’s conservation research team and travels to the Washington coast to collect data on activity budgets of sea otters as well as assisting with the annual Washington State sea otter survey. Aubrey has aided in the rehabilitation of several orphaned sea otter pups. Aubrey attended the OKWS in 2016 and 2018 and is excited to participate in this year’s workshop.
Helen is a researcher in the Reproductive Sciences Lab at the Toronto Zoo, where she conducts research in many species, but is especially involved with research in mustelids like otters and wolverines. Prior to moving back to Canada, Helen was at CREW, Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, where she started her research in 2002 into the reproductive characteristics of otters, which has included four species of otters over the years - NAROs, ASCOs, SNOts, and Giant otters. Several of these studies have been presented in international conferences and published in scientific journals (Zoo Biology, Theriogenology). Because of this research, Helen became a member of the IUCN Otter Specialist Group, the Reproductive advisor to Otter SSP, and a perennial instructor at the OKWS.
Teresa serves as the Species Survival Plan (SSP) Coordinator for the Spotted-necked otter, and as Spotted-necked otter Studboook Keeper. She has held these positions for two years. She is also a member of the IUCN Otter Specialist Group and its OZ Task Force. She attended the workshop in 2010 and has served as an instructor at the last four workshops. Teresa is the Supervisor of the Lied Jungle at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo which houses a wide variety of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. Among those animals are two species of otters, Asian small-clawed and African spotted-necked.
Tallie Wiles
Animal Keeper/ Africa Trail
Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute
Tallie started her career at National Zoo in 2008 as part of the elephant team where she worked primarily with hippos. She moved to the Asia Trail unit in 2010 which is when she started working with ASCOs. She attended her first OKWS in 2012 and enjoyed it so much she never left. In 2018 she stepped in as the registrar for the workshop. She currently serves as the SSP Vice-Coordinator for Asian Small-clawed otters.