Deborah Olson, Exec. Director
Deborah Olson is the Executive Director of the International Elephant Foundation. With 30 years of African elephant experience, she led the Indianapolis Zoo’s reproductive research program, which involves monitoring progesterone and luteininzing hormones of female elephants , correlating these hormones to reproductive tract changes through transrectal ultrasonography, which ultimately led to the successful insemination of two female African elephants in 1998. Olson has served on the AZA Elephant TAG/ SSP Management Group; the AZA Elephant Task Force; and is past Editor of the Journal of the Elephant Managers Association, is the North American Region African Elephant Studbook keeper, and edited the Elephant Husbandry Resource Guide. Current research efforts include a study to reduce elephant deaths caused by the Endotheliotropic Elephant Herpes Virus (EEHV) and the development of sex selection and cryopreservation protocols for Asian and African elephant sperm.