THE TEAM

Please  join us!  Sharing your knowledge and skills can open doors for entire communities.

Board
​of DIrectors

Our Board of Directors is comprised of several highly skilled members of Africa Matters who are working to bring the organization forward with innovative projects, information sharing and team building.

Committees
​& Volunteers

Our committees work in several areas supported by participation and contribution of additional volunteers. Please consider sharing your time. Committees include marketing, events, newsletter, recruitment, and finance.

Global ​partners 
​& Field crews

On-the-ground monitoring of school progress, needs and delivery of conservation initiatives and workshops are at the heart of our success. Our efforts could not be carried out without the partnership of like-minded individuals and organizations based in the US, Zimbabwe and other regions of Africa.

Board of Directors

Wendy Blakeley

President and founder

Wendy Blakeley, Founder, resides in Clayton, California. 
​Building on an interest in African history, culture and wildlife that began as a teenager, in 1991 she fulfilled a life-long dream to travel there.  She visited 5 countries in East Africa. She returned determined to get involved in assisting indigenous peoples to develop tools to conserve their wildlife and culture.  After a number of years fund-raising independently, she chartered Africa Matters as a non-profit to expand outreach for support. During the following years she has made repeated trips to Africa visiting 11 countries, and eventually accepted an offer to become the Community Arts Coordinator for Painted Dog Conservation in Zimbabwe. In this capacity she established Iganyana Arts and Crafts. That association led to her living in Zimbabwe for over 10 years.  Thanks to that, Africa Matters was able to identify specific needs in the NW section of the country near Hwange National Park.  In 2012 she returned to live full time in California.

​Jena Casey
dIRECTOR

Jena Casey is a local educator, ecologist, and artist. She grew up in the Santa Cruz Mountains where she developed her sense of wonder and appreciation for the natural world which lead her into conservation. Inspired by her family's love of photography and service she has worked in environmental management, wildlife conservation and environmental education. In her free time she uses photography to merge art, conservation and education into a tangible form for social enrichment.  She is also a joyful mother to her young son. She is motivated to preserve these treasured cultures and wild places for his future and generations well beyond. All her "free-time" is gratefully devoted to observing his growth and enrichment.

Brian Jones

Treasurer

Brian Jones has been a Certified Public Accountant since 1972. After spending over 7 years as a practicing CPA, he entered into private industry in the late 1970’s. Brian’s experience includes large publicly traded companies and smaller emerging growth companies, acting as the company’s controller or CFO.  Brian first met Wendy Blakeley when she shared studio space with Brian’s childhood friend, and subsequently was reintroduced to her when she & Brian both worked for a major Civil Rights law firm in the 1990’s. He traveled to Zimbabwe with other Board Members in 2013 to witness first hand the work Africa Matters supports.

Barry Blakeley

Secretary

Barry was born and raised in a small, rural Ohio town.  After graduating from Bowling Green State University, he went on to graduate study at the University of Michigan, where he earned a PhD. in Chinese history.  In 2000, after teaching at Seton Hall University for 30 years, he retired and moved to Oakland, California.
His interest in African wildlife was stimulated by a trip to Zimbabwe in 1998, where he visited several wildlife parks. 

​Joe Hollstein
Board member

Mr. Hollstein is a registered Civil Engineering who worked for 35 years for small communities in the Central Valley of California. He is now retired and loves to travel.
"I met Africa Matters Founder, Wendy Blakeley, on my second trip to sub-Sahara Africa in 1991. It was a fascinating 4-week overland trip through four east African countries. On this trip, I saw happy people living in ways it is hard for us to understand. Through Wendy and other reading, I saw there were needs, especially in the rural communities. When Wendy asked me to help her, first at events and then on the Board of Directors, I said yes."  

​Kathy Gervais
Board member

Dr. Gervais is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Veterinary School. She also attained an MA from UC Davis. Dr. Gervais joined Pets Unlimited (now SF SPCA) in 199. Her main professional interests are in preventive medicine, zoometrics and keeping the shelter residents healthy and happy. Her personal interests are wildlife photography, travel to all ends of the earth, hiking and cycling. She currently shares her home with former shelter cat “Purrfect Tommy” and co-owns a Corgi-cross named Sherwood. She is also the CVMA’s (California Veterinary Medical Association) disaster preparedness coordinator for San Francisco and is a past CVMA Foundation President.

​Christine Klinkowski
​Board member

Chrissie joined the Africa Matters Board of Directors in 2014 and brings a wealth of experience, skills and huge enthusiasm. Chrissie earned a M.S. in Biological Sciences with a Concentration in Organismal Biology, Ecology, and Conservation from San Jose State University, dual B.A.s in Environmental Studies, and Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She also holds certificates in Project Management from the University of California, Davis Ext. and GIS with a concentration in Remote Sensing from SJSU.
Chrissie is a wildlife biologist with nearly two decades of experience in the field. Her field work has included work with bobcats to identify wildlife corridors and identify areas of habitat loss in this highly fragmented landscape. Her M.S. thesis was directly influenced by working with Coryi Foundation Inc. and published an article entitled, “Estimating relative distribution of raccoons, opossums, skunks, and foxes using animal control data” in the journal Human-Wildlife Interactions. 
Chrissie has also more recently participated in population studies for the California red-legged frog, San Francisco garter snake, ringtailed cat and other threatened and endangered animals in California. She has been working as a Senior Terrestrial Biologist since 2008 and is responsible for managing the biological work for small to large scale projects throughout the state of California.
 While volunteering at Wildlife Conservation Network in early 2000s where she met Africa Matters founder Wendy Blakeley. She began volunteering at most of Africa Matters fundraisers. She currently resides in the Santa Cruz mountains, CA and enjoys hiking, gardening, and sailing. 

Advisory Committees

​Ruta Rakutis
Events and collaboration

Ruta is a polymer chemist with a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. She has spent most of her working life in California.  Ruta is an avid world traveler and since her first trip to Zimbabwe and Botswana in 1998, she has become an active conservationist and supporter of wildlife.  She has been a volunteer for the Oakland, CA, and Pittsburgh, PA, zoos and supports the Painted Dog Conservation Zimbabwe, as well as the Ethiopian Wolf Project through Wildlife Conservation Network (www.WildNet.org). She met Wendy in 1998, after reading series of articles written by Wendy Blakeley about her travels in Zimbabwe and Kenya.

​Pamela Michael
Marketing & Newsletter

Writer, educator, and radio producer Pamela Michael has spent decades working to integrate environmental and arts education into the lives of children and their communities. Co-founder, with Robert Hass, of the much-honored River of Words organization, her Watershed Explorer and One Square Block curricula have been used to train thousands of teachers, park rangers, youth leaders and other educators how to connect kids to their watersheds and their imaginations, inspiring them to create stunning art and poetry. Michael has taught writing and poetry to both children and adults, throughout the United States and abroad. From 2011 to 2016 she was director of The Center for Environmental Literacy at Saint Mary’s College of California. In 2005 she was invited as a keynote speaker to the Environmental Educators of Southern Africa convention in Zambia.  

Join Our team

Volunteers and Partners

Build something meaningful

Short on time? Volunteer to help at an event on a particular occasion that has meaning to you.

Enrich the lives of others

Support our programs through financial sponsorship of students, schools or projects that matter most to you.

preserve life's treasures

To volunteer your time and skills, contact us directly to find a project that suits your interest and availability.