Expedition Leaders
Wildlife Conservation Expedition in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Britt Larsen - Director of Programmes

Britt Larsen joined GVI almost 5 years ago as the Expedition Manager of the remote Amazon Expedition in Ecuador. She ran the program for 18 months and was then appointed to set up the Costa Rican wildlife expedition in the coastal lowland rainforest on the Caribbean coast. After set up she managed the Costa Rica expedition for a year and naturally moved on to manage all South American Expeditions for a year and a half before finally being promoted to Director of Programmes. She now overseas all GVI field programmes and has been key in the GVI reaction to Hurricane Dean in Mexico, and in the set up and running of corporate volunteer and community capacity building programs for Whole Foods Market (Fortune 100) and Kraft Foods through the GVI Corporate Alliance. Britt is an Emergency First Response Instructor Trainer, an Off-Site Safety Management trainer, a certified powerboat driver and holds a B.Sc. in Zoology from Newcastle University. Originally from Denmark, Britt has worked and studied abroad during the last 12 years. She has run independent zoological expeditions to Tanzania, where she conducted primate, mammal, bird and amphibian surveys in the Udzungwa Mountains of the Eastern Arc, and to Ecuador’s cloud forest searching for the endangered Pacarana, the 3rd largest rodent in the world. She has also sailed across the Atlantic in a 36-foot ketch, cycled around Central America for a year working in a range of National Parks and has traveled extensively around Africa, Europe and the Americas. With over 10 years of international field experience, Britt has managed research, community and conservation programs globally and is a key member of the GVI team.

Louise Murgatroyd - Country Director - Ecuador

Louise joined GVI early in 2005 to set up the regional office in Ecuador and established the current Amazon expedition at Yachana Reserve in January, 2006. Armed with an English degree and a passion for travel, Louise left her native Toronto in the early ‘90s and developed a keen interest in conservation and the environment while working aboard an Antarctic cruise ship. After continuing her travels and professional development in Australia, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean, she returned to Canada to complete a master’s degree in marine resource management in which she focused her studies on eco-tourism and protected areas. Louise holds professional instructor certifications in sailing, scuba diving and TEFL. She has provided instruction and leadership in youth training adventures around the world, and developed an on-going youth community service programme in the Galapagos Islands. She has worked as a lighthouse keeper on Canada’s west coast, and as the co-ordinator of a marine stewardship initiative that provided public education and monitoring in British Columbia’s intensive orca whale watching industry. With a keen interest in conservation, protected areas, eco-tourism and sustainable community development, Louise brings her marine and coastal experience to the equally diverse and threatened environment of Ecuador's Amazon region.

Germania Estevez - Expedition Manager

An Ecuadorian biologist, Germania studied Biology at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador, in Quito. Her professional interests included the systematics of spiders and butterflies. She has actively participated in various international studies and projects regarding invertebrates, which has taken her throughout Ecuador. She was the Ecuadorian counterpart for several international research projects, and was the curator of the Department of Entomology and Head of the Invertebrate Section of the Ecuadorian Museum of Natural Sciences (MECN) from 1992 - 2000. Germania is the co-author of the book “Mariposas del Ecuador”. Following this she became the assistant curator of the Terrestrial Invertebrates Collection of the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Islands from 2000 to 2005. She then moved to Costa Rica where she was a collaborator on the Spider Collection of the Instituto National de Biodiversidad (INBio) for a few months before becoming the coordinator for a Sea Turtle Conservation Project and then the resident biologist for a Wildcat Rescue Shelter. She has returned to her native Ecuador to join GVI Yachana as the expedition manager where she is taking a keen interest in all activities and is enjoying sharing Ecuadorian culture with the expedition members.

Stephanie Topp - Science Co-ordinator

Travel, love of the outdoors, tropical ecology and conservation have lead Stephanie, a native of Toronto, Canada, to a distant country and back into the rainforest. With a varied academic background in which she completed a BSc in Kinesiology from Dalhousie University and a BSc in Natural Resources Conservation from the University of British Columbia, Stephanie developed a passion for field work and a love of working with birds. This passion started when she traveled to India and New Zealand and became fascinated with the unique species found abroad and the conservation issues many of them faced. It increased when she was a volunteer and then staff member with a wildlife rescue association in British Columbia. Following her 2nd BSc, where she worked on aquatic and avian projects, Stephanie jumped right into her MSc at the University of Windsor in Canada. Here she joined the avian acoustic communication lab of Dr. Daniel Mennill and studied the duetting behaviour of Rufous-and-white Wrens in Costa Rica - one of her favourite bird species in the world; just after the Winter Wren, another species she has worked with in Canada. Stephanie completed her Masters in April 2007. She didn’t think twice about joining the GVI Amazon team in August 2007 and is looking forward to the opportunity of conducting tropical ecology and avian research, as well as getting back into conservation and community work.

Susan North - Expedition Staff

Susan joined GVI in February 2008, and holds a BS in Biology which she earned at California State University Chico, in 2003. After graduating, Susan began travelling in Central and South America during which she was lucky enough to visit the Ecuadorian Amazon. It was here that she realized a newfound passion for the rainforest, which blossomed into a dedicated effort to become active in its conservation. She chose to combine her love for seeing the world with her desire to learn more about rainforest ecology and the sustainable management of protected areas, by attending graduate school at James Cook University in Australia.

She completed a Master’s degree in Zoology and Tropical Ecology, undertaking rainforest biodiversity research throughout tropical North Queensland, while also satiating her love for the outdoors. While there, she discovered her passion for amphibians and the need for research into global amphibian decline. This brought her back to Ecuador in 2007, as a volunteer for the Pontifica Universidad Católica del Ecuador, where she assisted with a captive breeding programme for amphibians.

Susan brings a love for the rainforest and a strong desire to understand the ecology of this diverse environment, including how humans can live within, benefit from, and conserve this marvellous system. She very much looks forward to working with others to achieve a greater understanding of tropical rainforests and the communities that rely on them.