Name Amy Vedder | Education Swarth College | |
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Amy Vedder (born March 24, 1951 in Palatine Bridge, New York) is an ecologist and primatologist involved in conservation work with mountain gorillas. She was the Class of 1969 valedictorian at Canajoharie High School, Canajoharie, New York, and a 1973 graduate of Swarthmore College.
Vedder worked in Africa for the Peace Corps from 1973 to 1975. In 1978 she arrived in Rwanda with her husband, William Weber, to study gorillas at Karisoke, the research station run by Dian Fossey.
After getting a doctorate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1989, she became Biodiversity Coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society, and later director of the conservation of the WCS's Africa Program.
One of Vedder's contributions was to implement the Mountain Gorilla Project, which sought to involve local Rwandans and use ecotourism to help conserve the gorillas.