Joyce Kaplan
Web Link: Zoo School
- She works as the Director, Zoo Animal Technology at Pensacola Junior College
- Lives in Florida
- Not married/no children
- Works with animals
- Her favorite memory: summer at Marineland with Lisel!
- Her favorite teachers: Gallagher, Nomachi, Gill & Shapiro
Joyce sent us this info about her...thanks for catching us up, Joyce!
I went off to Cornell U for my BS degree and then University of Idaho for my MS. My graduate research was on reproductive biology of spotted skunks! Learned to appreciate the scent, haha.
I worked at a number of zoos around the country: Bronx, Buffalo, Wildlife Safari (Oregon), and Sedgwick County (Kansas). I also was a manager in the racing department of a greyhound track for a while while I taught biology as an adjunct professor at a college.
Finally 8 years ago I headed out here to Pensacola FL to start up a college degree program in Zoo Animal Technology. So yes, someone did head down that pathway! ;)
My family includes 2 greyhounds and a tank of saltwater fish, and bunches of zoo students and graduates who are still here or working at zoos all over the country. I've already got grads placed at zoos from coast to coast and some international students too. You can check out my website on this zootech adventure at http://itech.pjc.edu/jkaplan/zooschool/
Beyond that, I help run a greyhound adoption group here, am on the board of directors of our local wildlife sanctuary, serve on a couple of American Zoo Association committees, and am tired tired tired of HURRICANES! I got to escape from them for a few weeks this past summer though as I was taking a graduate course doing cheetah research in Namibia where my photo is from with the cheetah. I'm having fun but just slightly overextended.
It is fun to hear what everyone has been up to!
