Penelope Bodry-Sanders is Founder and retired Executive
Director of the Lemur
Conservation Foundation (LCF), which was founded in
1996 and dedicated to the preservation and conservation
of the primates of Madagascar through captive breeding,
scientific research, education, and art.
She
retired from New York’s American
Museum of Natural History
in 1998 after serving the
museum over 18 years in a number of capacities, but primarily
as education coordinator for the museum’s international
education travel program. She continues her AMNH affiliation
as Field Associate in the Division of Anthropology. Her
book, African
Obsession: The Life and Legacy of Carl Akeley,
about the legendary hunter-turned-conservationist who
saved the mountain gorilla
from extinction, was well received and lauded as an important
contribution to the body of conservation literature.
Penelope’s
own path to conservation was anything but conventional
– she started as an Adrian Dominican nun in Chicago
before embarking on a career as an actress and singer
on and off Broadway in New York for twelve years. Still
unfulfilled, she found a home and meaningful community
at the AMNH, which nurtured her and inspired her to think
and act expansively. Founding and growing the Lemur Conservation
Foundation became her raison d'être.
In
2010, Penelope was awarded an Audubon TogetherGreen Fellowship
and has been an
Explorers Club Fellow since 1989.
