James Sawyer, WSPA’s head of disaster management, is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society who has managed overseas operations across five continents and led 12 expeditions to remote regions. He is based at WSPA’s International office in the UK.
Gerardo Huertas, Director of Disaster Management for the Americas, has been with WSPA for over 25 years. Gerardo took part in missions at the Nicaraguan/Costa Rican frontier during the Nicaraguan Civil War, earning the RSPCA's Meritorious Overseas Award. He has worked in Kosovo, Afghanistan, in Sri Lanka directly after the 2004 tsunami, and many other emergency situations. Gerardo and his team also work on risk reduction.
Dr Ian Dacre, disaster management operation director, led WSPA’s groundbreaking emergency operation in Myanmar after 2008’s devastating cyclone. Originally from New Zealand, he is now based in WSPA’s Asia office, in Thailand.
Dr Sergio Vasquez, WSPA's Costa-Rica based disaster management veterinary officer, is an experienced vet. He has provided vital emergency relief for animals in a number of recent disaster scenarios, including the devastating Costa Rican earthquake of January 2009.
Dr Juan Carlos Murillo, WSPA’s longest serving disaster management veterinary officer, has assisted thousands of animals in a whole range of disaster situations. He is based in Costa Rica, deploying from the WSPA office covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
Dr Ashish Sutar, senior disaster veterinary officer, has worked gruelling hours in the flooded Indian states of Bihar and Orissa in 2009. He is based in WSPA’s Indian office.
Steven Clegg, Disaster Response Team Leader for the Asia Pacific Region, has years of disaster response and risk reduction experience in North America, Peru, South-East Asia, and extensive work across the Pacific Region including Hawaii. He brings with him a strong background in applied geosciences, specializing in volcanology and natural hazards mitigation, as well as experience in contemporary Emergency and Disaster Management theory and practice. His particular areas of interest include community resiliency and the anthropology of disaster, particularly the importance of animals in these.
Dr Aim Prasarnphanich, Disaster Management Project Officer, is a Thai vet based in WSPA’s Asia Pacific Regional Office in Bangkok. She has worked indefatigably responding to the devastating Thailand floods in late 2011. She is currently responsible for projects concerning disaster management policy for animals and a capacity-building project in Vietnam. Most recently, she has been accepted by Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS) Steering Group as the first and only Asia representative. LEGS is now accepted by the United Nations.
Dr Naritsorn Pholperm, Disaster Operations Veterinary Officer, has been with WSPA since 2008 at the Asia Pacific Regional Office in Bangkok. He has been enthusiastically involved in assessments across Asia and the Pacific, including intensive work during Cyclone ONDOY in the Philippines, 2009 and Thailand flooding in 2010 and 2011. He’s done disaster assessment and response work in Vietnam, Myanmar, Fiji and several other countries across the Asia-Pacific region. Dr. Pholperm has been actively involved with the Thailand Veterinary Response Unit (VERU) and with other animal focused disaster risk reduction programs.
Ricardo Jiménez Cárdenas, although he's not a vet, often blogs for us here. He is a member of WSPA South America's communications team and regularly joins our disaster teams to send through updates from the field, including some of the great pictures you can see from our blog posts related to work in that region.
