Brad Keitt

Brad received an MS in Marine Sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz and is a Switzer Foundation Conservation Fellow. His thesis work focused on the conservation and ecology of the Baja California endemic Black-vented Shearwater. He has conducted research on all of the Baja Pacific Islands, as well as islands in Alaska, Hawaii, California, Oregon, the tropical Pacific, and the Caribbean. Brad has published over 40 scientific articles on seabirds and the conservation of islands and has extensive involvement around policy issues related to the protection of island biodiversity and island ecosystems in the US and Mexico. Brad helped to create the Guadalupe Island Biosphere Reserve, leading to the protection of nearly a half million hectares of marine environment and the 26,000 hectares of terrestrial habitat on Guadalupe Island. Brad helped secure almost $4 million US to implement much needed management actions on the "Islas del Pacifico" of Baja California and he also petitioned to declare these islands an official protected area - an action that will protect 11 islands and almost 180,000 hectares of the surrounding marine environment. In his more than 20 years with Island Conservation Brad participated in the planning and implementation of over 70 eradications of invasive vertebrates from islands. Brad currently serves as the Director of the Oceans and Islands Program at American Bird Conservancy where he is working to protect the western hemisphere's most threatened bird species on islands and at sea.