| Board of Directors |
Jim Fouts, ChairmanTanganyika Wildlife Park
Ingrid Schmidt-Buchanan, Vice ChairKokopelli Ranch Ingrid Schmidt-Buchanan was born, raised and educated in Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1964. She began her zoo career in Recklinghausen, Germany and then worked at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo in Neb., for five years. Following Omaha, she worked at the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque, N.M., retiring in 1997 after 25 years. She is currently raising alpaca. Ingrid was one of the first female general curators in the U.S. She was the editor for the quarterly Journal for the International Society of Zooculturists for 14 years and also served as ISZ chairman of the board. She is past species coordinator for cheetah for Species Survival Plan.
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Jim Fouts has been in the zoo industry since 1972 and was working in zoos until 1977, when he decided to go out on his own. Starting in 1978, he began importing birds and animals from all over the world for zoological collections, and in 1985, he opened bird import stations in Los Angeles. Ever since 1980, he worked throughout Africa supplying birds and animals to zoos around the world. In 1985, he began developing a holding/breeding compound in Goddard, Kan. Jim is currently the director of Tanganyika Wildlife Park.
John Wortman’s career, spanning over 40 years, began as a zookeeper at the Topeka Zoological Park in 1967. By 1970, he moved on to the Louisville Zoological Gardens as the zoo's curator. A year later, the position of general curator opened at the Topeka Zoological Park, and he returned to Kansas where a promotion to assistant director took place in 1975. In 1979, while hoping to obtain more experience in a larger zoo operation, he relocated to the Dallas Zoo as the curator of mammals. In addition to zoo work, he spent five years as a part-time biology instructor at El Centro College in downtown Dallas. Following another opportunity in 1985, he relocated to the Denver Zoological Gardens to serve as general curator, from which he retired 18 years later. At this point in 2003, he moved to Southwest Florida and assumed the position of collections manager which eventually became the administrative manager of a wildlife ranch known as the Center of Conservation of Tropical Ungulates (CCTU). This conservation/propagation facility places tropical and subtropical hoofed animals in spacious, natural conditions. Currently, several of the herds housed at CCTU contain the largest numbers of that particular species outside of their native habitats.
Joseph Maynard started working with leopards in 1970 and founded the Exotic Feline Breeding Compound’s Feline Conservation Center in 1977. The facility is a breeding and reproductive research center formed specifically to address reproduction issues in captive felids. The facility currently houses 78 specimens representing 18 species of felidae.
Jim Fowler has been involved in presenting animals to the public for over 40 years. He has been a consultant to zoos and wildlife parks, owns and operates his own wildlife ranch and is developing new kinds of wildlife parks that intend to reconnect families and children to the natural world by combining education and adventure. His career in television includes having been co-host and then host of “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom,” the wildlife correspondent to NBC's Today Show and a regular on many talk shows. He is currently the honorary president of the Explorer's Club and serves on the board of several wildlife organizations. His mission is to help affect public attitudes so more people care about the existence of the natural world and understand that “How We Treat the Earth” is vitally important to our human welfare.
Mike Jones is a writer and illustrator who owns Treetop Exotics, a 35-acre facility in Denison, Texas. He has acted as a board member for the National Alternative Livestock Association, International Society of Zooculturists (ISZ) and is a founding board member of ZAA.
Peter Brewer has been a general curator since 1974, working at both small and medium-sized zoos. He received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, North Grafton, MA in 1998. He currently is the staff veterinarian and general curator at Southwick's Zoo in Mendon, MA, which features over 500 animals and 150 species.
Dr. Valerie Holt is a Veterinarian and the co-owner of Animal Kindness Veterinary Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada. She has over nineteen years experience working with small and exotic mammals. Valerie received her bachelor’s degree from La. Tech University in 1987 and her DVM from LSU in 1990. 
Along with running his own independent oil production company, Lynn Hall is very active in keeping and breeding numerous species of fruit doves and pigeons for conservation efforts; indeed, his name and expertise is well known regarding fruit doves as well fennec foxes. Throughout the years, Lynn has been active in numerous organizations and continues to give presentations at various conferences as well as write articles for publication. He has served as a past president of the Avicultural Society of America and on the board of ISZ. 
Forrest de Spain has over 26 years experience in the zoological field, from zookeeper to animal trainer to zoo director, at both privately-owned and government-owned zoological facilities. He served as a board member of United Zoological Association, is a founding board member of Zoological Association of America, and served on ZAA's membership, website, and accreditation committees. He currently is a facility accreditation inspector for ZAA.