Eleanor Sterling

Eleanor Sterling (October 3, 1960 – February 11, 2023) was an American conservationist and biologist, best known for her work developing the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History. Sterling's work incorporated multiple biological sciences, including mammalogy, anthropology, marine biology, and conservation education, and she received several awards for her scholarship, including the Wilbur Cross Medal and the Fred Packard Award.
==Early life and education==
Sterling was born on October 3, 1960 in Massachusetts, and was raised in Davis, California with her sister and two brothers. She attended Yale University and graduated with her B.A. in Psychology and Biology in 1983. As an undergraduate at Yale, she studied under anthropologist Alison Richard and performed with the senior SSAA a cappella group, Whim 'n Rhythm. Sterling would go on to receive two higher degrees from Yale, a Masters of Philosophy in 1989 and a Ph.D. in Anthropology and Forestry in 1993. Her thesis work at Yale focused on the behavioral ecology of the aye-aye, which she would continue to study as a Peace Corps trainer in Madagascar.
==Career==
Immediately after graduating from her undergraduate program at Yale, Sterling worked for the San Diego Zoo and the World Wildlife Fund, where she first became interested in the aye-aye. Throughout the 1990s, she served as a trainer and consultant for the Peace Corps for several years, primarily working in Madagascar and Comoros. She was a visiting researcher at Duke University in 1992 and at the American Museum of Natural History in 1993, where she would return in 1996 as a Program Director of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC). In 2000, she became the director of the CBC. From 2014 to 2021, Sterling served as the Jaffe Chief Conservation Scientist at the museum, where her work spanned the globe, including countries like Bolivia, Vietnam, and The Bahamas. While at the AMNH, she founded the Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners, mentored students in the Richard Gilder Graduate School, and curated five exhibitions on topics such as global food systems, Pinta Island tortoises, and China's Yunnan Province. She also founded the New York Women in Natural Sciences Chapter of the Association for Women in Sciences, where she helped develop the Untold Stories in Conservation and Natural History project to highlight underrepresented individuals in the field.
Sterling was also a founding member of the Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology Department at Columbia University, and served as an adjunct professor there as well as the Director of Graduate Studies from 2002 to 2012.
Sterling's early work on the aye-aye established her as a leading expert on the species, and her later research focused on the behavioral ecology of endangered species, including sea turtles in the Palmyra Atoll and Giant Galapogos Tortoises. She authored and co-authored over 200 publications, including the first published guide to flora and fauna in Vietnam published in 2006, Vietnam: A Natural History. Sterling was also the editor of Lessons in Conservation, the journal of the Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners, and served on the Board of Directors for the Center for Humans and Nature.
Sterling was involved with the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Nature Resources (IUCN), most notably serving as the the deputy vice chair of the World Commission on Protected Areas, where she helped to develop a Strategic Framework for Capacity Development. From 2018 to 2022, she also served on the Board of Directors of Island Conservation, and as chair of the diversity, equity, and inclusion committee.
In 2022, she became the director of the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. After her death in 2023, her friends established a fund for the institute in her honor.
==Personal life and death==
While working for the Peace Corps in Madagascar, Sterling met Kevin Frey, another volunteer. They married in 1996. In November 2022, Sterling was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and passed away on February 11, 2023 in Oahu.
==Awards==
* Graduate Student Advisory Council Faculty Mentoring Award, Columbia University, 2012
* Distinguished Service Award, Society for Conservation Biology, 2013
* Wilbur Cross Medal, Yale University, 2016
* Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy Award for Meritorious Research,International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 2016
* Distinguished Alumni Award, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, 2018
* Women of Discovery Humanity Award, WINGS WorldQuest, 2018
* Fred Packard Award, IUCN, 2023
Category:1960 births
Category:People from Massachusetts
Category:American people
Category:Yale University alumni
Category:Conservationists
Category:Biologists
Category:2023 deaths