Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation

Fellowship Year: 2012

Academic Background: University of Maine - Ph.D 2013- (Ornithology)

Adrienne Leppold is currently a doctoral candidate in the School of Biology and Ecology at the University of Maine. Prior to pursuing graduate school, she held positions with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and served, for a number of years, as the banding program coordinator for the Powdermill Avian Research Center in western Pennsylvania. Her dissertation research has been supported by the University of Maine’s DeepCWind Consortium and has been a collaborative effort with the Maine Coastal Islands NWR. She is focusing on understanding the spatial and temporal patterns of landbird migration through the Gulf of Maine region in the context of addressing potential effects of near shore and offshore wind energy development on migrants. In concert with her research, she co-founded, and is currently the assistant director of, the Northeast Regional Migration Monitoring Network, which serves to coordinate and expand avian research efforts throughout the region. The network is currently comprised of a number of state and federal agencies, academic institutions, and NGO’s. Adrienne is committed to helping improve how bird banding techniques and methods are employed, has offered numerous professional development workshops, and is certified at the trainer level by the North American Banding Council. She is also passionate about sharing her knowledge of birds, bird conservation initiatives, and the birds themselves with the public. She is involved in establishing a non-profit Gulf of Maine Bird Observatory and hopes it will serve as an umbrella for not only research, but for expanding education and outreach initiatives as well. In the photo, she is posing with a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, one of thousands of migrants captured on Metinic Island, in mid-coast Maine, during the Fall 2011 migration season.

Expertise: Conservation Science & Biology, Environmental Education