Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell in Africa

Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell, an award-winning author and photographer, is a faculty affiliate at the Center for Conservation Biology, where she began her postdoctoral studies in Paul Ehrlich’s lab in 2000. She was a consulting faculty member at Stanford University Medical School within the department of otolaryngology, head & neck surgery. In addition to her work at Stanford, Dr. O’Connell-Rodwell serves as an instructor at Harvard Medical School and a faculty associate at Harvard University Center for the Environment.

Dr. O’Connell-Rodwell has been studying elephants in the wild for the last thirty years and has published dozens of scientific papers, numerous feature magazine articles, and two memoirs about her experiences. She is a co-founder of Utopia Scientific, a non-profit dedicated to public health and conservation. She taught creative science writing for Stanford and the New York Times and co-developed the award-winning Smithsonian documentary, Elephant King. Her award-nominated thriller series about the ivory trade, Ivory Ghosts, is now being released as a graphic novel. Dr. O’Connell-Rodwell has 30 years of experience working in Namibia, first as a biologist for the Namibian government, then as a collaborating scientist with an active elephant field site within Etosha National Park.

During our program, Dr. O’Connell-Rodwell will lecture on animal rituals, the surprising and heartwarming ties that bind elephants together, elephant matriarchal societies, and the current state of elephant conservation.  

• At Stanford: Consulting assistant professor and instructor within the department of otolaryngology (2007–2018); postdoctoral fellow (2000–2005); research associate (2005–2007), research affiliate, Center for Conservation Biology 2000–present

• Distinguished Young Alumna Award, UC-Davis, 2007

• Author of Wild Rituals, New York Times Notable Book, 2021

• Co-author of The Elephant Scientist, for which she and her husband Timothy C. Rodwell provided the photographs and which received the Sibert and Horn Book Honor in 2012

• Outstanding Science Trade Book award, 2012

• Junior Library Guild Selection, 2011 and 2015

• BS, biology, with a minor in French and art history, Fairfield University

• MSc, ecology, evolution and conservation biology, University of Hawaii at Manoa

• PhD, ecology, UC-Davis