Here are a few of our friends who have contributed their expertise to The Butterfly House.
Guest Speakers at the Monarch Releases:
Linda Penn, Interpretive Naturalist, Lepidopterist, Author
Linda Penn, Coordinator of the Natural and Environmental Science Program at Lourdes College Life Lab in Sylvania, Ohio, has offered nature education that includes "Life Cycle Learning with Butterflies" since the early "70's". Presently she provides Field Classes and Summer Science Camps for children; Eldervision Classes for Seniors and Professional Workshops and Institutes for both public and parochial schools. Linda continues to develop educational programs at the Lourdes College Life Lab, serving over 150 teachers and 6,000 students annually. Additional staff includes a Program Director, Animal Care Specialist and other teacher naturalists.Linda has authored a series of twelve science activity books, of which 300,000 copies were in circulation throughout the USA and Canada from the early 1980's through 1992. Nine of the 12 titles were selected by the Smithsonian to be sold in there museum shops and several were featured as Educational Book Club selections. Linda has received numerous awards, such as, the Blanche Hornbeck Award from the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, New York; Ohio Alliance for the Environment; Friend of Science from SECO; Phi Delta Kappa, Friend of Education Award; and the American Foundation Award to name a few.Since 1990, the Life Lab Program has received nearly $1,000,000,000 in local, state, and national grants.
Doris N. Stifel
Doris is a native Toledoan who has always been interested in the natural world. She majored in biology and taught at the U. Toledo several years after graduation before becoming a research scientist with Owens Illinois. Her interest in monarchs spans many years during which she worked closely with Dr. Fred Urquhart, retired U. Toronto, who was the one who discovered the overwintering spot for the butterfly. Now she is working closely with Dr. Lincoln Brower and Dr. Orley Taylor both of whom are well known for the research they are doing on the monarch. She has visited the overwintering spots near Morelia, MX, several times and has attended international meetings of the leading scientists from Canada, US, and MX while there. For many years she has been involved in tagging monarchs during their fall migration in order to learn more about this unusual migration which is one of the great wonders of the insect world. She probably has tagged between 150,000 - 200,000 monarchs and has had frequent recoveries of those found en route to or at the overwintering site.
