Meet . . . our Engagement Committee
Tom Finch
Chair
Tom works is a Senior Conservation Scientist with the RSPB’s Centre for Concervation Science. His interests include conservation, agriculture and bird migration. He completed his PhD at the University of East Anglia in 2016, where he studied the breeding ecology and migration of the European Roller. He sits on BOU Council as an ordinary member, and is also on the BOU Engagement Committee.
Follow Tom on Twitter @ tomfinch89
Ondřej Belfín
Conference Support Officer 
Ondrej has been following his childhood dream, trying to understand bird language and sharing this passion with others. Through his research, he discovered the diversity in the songs of Red-breasted Flycatchers and explored the limits of passive acoustic monitoring. His current focus is on studying the complex communication of shorebirds as he prepares for his PhD at Birdeyes, a new science and creative centre that literally looks at the world from a bird’s perspective. In the meantime, he has been involved in outreach activities at the Czech Society for Ornithology by leading the country’s first comprehensive bird identification course and academy for young ornithologists.
Follow Ondrej on Twitter @OBelfin
Aonghais Cook
Aonghais is a senior research ecologist within the BTO’s Wetland and Marine Research Team. Since joining the BTO in 2008 to help investigate the potential impacts of tidal power projects on waterbirds on the Severn Estuary, he has worked on a variety of applied projects. In recent years, his work has focussed on the Offshore Wind Industry, both in the UK and internationally.
Follow Aonghais on Twitter @AonghaisC
Jamie Dunning
Jamie is broadly interested in birds, and studies how they interact with each other – how they communicate information and socialise – and the causes and consequences of these interactions. He is currently a research fellow, studying bird behaviour and disease transmission, at the University of Leeds. Before that, he completed a PhD at Imperial College London on sociality and female reproductive behaviour in birds.
Danielle Hinchcliffe
Danni is a lecturer in Conservation Biology and Ecology at Liverpool John Moores University. Danni gained a Molecular Ecology PhD at the University of East Anglia where she studied the once critically-endangered Seychelles warbler and participated in its successful translocation to Fregate Island. She since worked as a Senior Scientist for an NGO and as a Teaching Fellow/now Honorary Lecturer at University of Salford. Her ornithological research uses a combination of molecular and ecological tools to understand how birds adapt to environmental challenges. She uses a range of eco-physiological and behavioural tools to investigate individual and population-level responses and use this information to optimise conservation management. Danni is a Senior Teaching Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an associate editor for the British Ecological Society journal, Ecological Solutions and Evidence.
Follow Danni on Twitter @DanniHinchy
Katharine Keogan
Kat is an ornithologist with a love of macroecology, looking for patterns across large datasets, and the sea. Currently working as a data scientist with HiDef Aerial Surveying, a consultancy based in Edinburgh, which involves research and analysis for Environmental Impact Assessments for offshore wind development. She has a C permit for ringing seabirds and is a committee member for the Lothian Ringing Group.
Follow Kat on Twitter @KatharineKeogan
Ashleigh Marshall
Journal Support Officer
Ashleigh completed a PhD in Conservation Biology with the ZSL Institute of Zoology and University College London in 2023, with her research focused on investigating hatching failure in wild and managed bird populations. She took a multidisciplinary approach which included conducting fieldwork in Aotearoa New Zealand and applying various methods such as meta-analysis, molecular techniques, microbiome analyses, and fluorescence microscopy. She is passionate about evidence-based conservation and science communication, regularly taking part in online and in-person public outreach activities as well as previously acting as Social Media Editor for the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society and volunteering with the RSPB at a city-centre nature reserve in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Follow Ashleigh on Twitter @Belfast_Ash9
Verónica Méndez
Verónica is currently based at the University Centre of the Westfjords (Iceland), as program director of the Coastal and Marine Management master’s program. My research focuses in coastal systems, with particular interest in wader migration ecology an population dynamics. She is currently studying the Icelandic breeding population of Eurasian Oystercatcher to investigate causes and consequences of variation in migratory behaviour and individual responses to environmental change.
Follow Verónica on Twitter @VMendezAragon
Charlie Russell
Blog Editor 
Charlie is a PhD student at the University of East Anglia, UK where he primarily studies migratory birds and how exposure to different anthropogenic threats impacts population trends. He is interested in understanding how we can translate individual mortality risks to population-level risks, whilst accounting for the complex interactions between the dynamic elements of human and bird behaviour. His work uses Greater Spotted Eagles as a case study, a species he is particularly fond of.
Charlie has a background working with raptors, and before starting his PhD he worked in policy and for NGOs in various capacities, including in-situ conservation of vultures in southern Africa.
Follow Charlie on Twitter @CJG_Russell
Elwyn Sharps
Elwyn (he/him) currently works for Natural Resources Wales (NRW) as a Marine and Coastal Ornithologist. Since completing his PhD looking at effects of livestock grazing of saltmarshes on breeding Redshank he has also worked as a Conservation Scientist and Conservation Officer for the RSPB, as Field Survey Manager for CEH and as People and Places Officer for NRW. Elwyn has been bird-mad since he was a teenager. He grew up spending his weekends and school holidays volunteering at RSPB Conwy and was fortunate enough to get his first paid job as an Information Warden at this reserve at the young age of just 16 years old, meaning his career in conservation has spanned over 20 years to date. Outside of work Elwyn has played an active role in the ornithological community. He spent four years on the International Wader Study Group’s Executive Committee as Publicity Officer – which involved managing the groups social media and publicity. In addition, after completing Stonewall’s ‘Workplace Trans Allies programme’ Elwyn volunteered for the RSPB as an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion advisor. Elwyn is a keen runner and is currently training for the London Marathon, a challenge he is completing in aid of WWF-UK.
Follow Elwyn on Twitter @elwynsharps
Leila Walker
Chief Operations Officer
also
Equality & Diversity Working Group member
Leila has responsibility for the day to day management and running of the BOU including conferences and events, the business side of the BOU’s journal, IBIS, social media and communications, website development and content management and servicing BOU Council and its Standing Committees.
Follow Leila on Twitter @leilakwalker
Karolina Zalewska
Karolina is a PhD student at the University of East Anglia. Her project focuses on behavioural and demographic responses to exposure to a range of climatic conditions. In particular, she investigates the importance of climatic niches as well as the use of microclimate refugia and how these may be linked to population trends and spatial usage. Karolina is also interested in how con- and hetero-specific interactions within communities shape behaviour and population dynamics.
Follow Karolina on Twitter @kzalewwska
Natalia Zielonka
Social Media Support Officer
Natalia is a PhD student at the University of East Anglia where she primarily studies the diversity and ecosystem functions of birds across global fruit systems. Her work is split across intensively managed grape and mango farms in the Caatinga biome in North-eastern Brazil with the SUFICA project, and also across British vineyards with the support from the Sustainable Wines of Great Britain Scheme. Natalia’s work is diverse and includes monitoring of birds and invertebrate communities, acoustic monitoring of biodiversity and using experimental methods to quantify ecosystem services delivery. Natalia hopes that her work will help to inform ecological intensification and sustainable management in these growing industries.
Before her PhD, Natalia worked on the acoustic ecology of the elusive European Nightjar in Sherwood Forest, before falling in love with waders, when she studied the breeding ecology of the majestic Eurasian Curlew in the Brecks, before working as a research assistant for Project Godwit in 2019.
Follow Natalia on Twitter @Nat_B_Zielonka