WReNNZ Committee
Brian Robertson - Chairperson
Project Manager and Professional Civil Engineer
Brian is a Chartered Professional Civil Engineer with over 30 years’ experience in civil construction and management, and he is currently a project manager on large motorway projects in Auckland. Brian is also Chairperson of the Wild Bird Care Charitable Trust which was founded and established by his wife Mandy in 2009.
Brian became increasingly involved and passionate about wildlife and rehabilitation through Mandy’s work in her rehab centre and joined WReNNZ before joining the committee a few years later. Brian hopes to use his management and project management skills to help grow WReNNZ as an organisation and help our members to continue their amazing work saving our native wildlife.
Jordan Rennie - Secretary
Wildlife Advocate and Former Rehabilitator
Jordan has previously rehabilitated birds in Wellington for four years and gained a wealth of knowledge through the WReNNZ conferences and other WReNNZ members. She is currently working in administration and hopes to return to study next year. Jordan is devoted to animal liberation and conservation and hopes to continue to make a difference in these fields.
Dr Janelle Ward - Committee Member
Wildlife Veterinarian and Lecturer
Janelle is an avian and wildlife veterinarian that has been involved with many aspects of wildlife health including research, oiled wildlife response, pathology, species translocations, wildlife rehabilitation, education and training. She is dedicated to helping to protect the unique and endangered wildlife species of New Zealand.
Janelle currently works part-time for the NZ Department of Conservation and part-time for Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari as Species Coordinator. Janelle also conducts training for vets, vet nurses and those interested in wildlife first aid and rehabilitation.
As WReNNZ Chair Janelle oversees all aspects of the organisation. Working with the committee Janelle is focused on WReNNZ growth and sustainability. Janelle chairs the AGM, sources speakers for WReNNZ conferences and seeks ongoing opportunities for networking and collaboration, to consistently expand and improve wildlife rehabilitation in New Zealand.
Bev Wilkinson - Committee Member
Wildlife Rehabilitator specialising in Kiwi
Bev has recently increased her involvement with WReNNZ after reducing her workload with the National Kiwi Hatchery in Rotorua.
Bev has 11 years experience working with Kiwi and is very keen to stay involved in wildlife rehabilitation. Bev is a fantastic communicator who is incredibly passionate about conservation and husbandry standards.
Dr Lynn Miller - Committee Member
General Manager and Rehabilitator
Lynn, along with academic studies, has over 35 years of experience rehabbing wildlife. Wildlife rehabilitation has been central to her life, with founding Le Nichoir, in Canada in 1994, becoming an International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council (IWRC) instructor over 15 years ago, joining the IWRC Board of Directors, and in 2011, becoming president of IWRC.
The work front also saw positions that included being the Director of Rehabilitation for the Cape Wildlife Center, Barnstable, MA. Director of Education, South Florida Wildlife Centre, Fort Lauderdale, FL, before returning to New Zealand as the General Manager of NZ Bird Rescue in Green Bay, Auckland in 2019.
Annemieke Kregting - Committee Member
Former Wildlife Rehabilitator and Vet Nurse
Anniemieke is a former veterinary nurse of 22 years, both overseas and in NZ. Annemieke has been privileged to work with domestic and avian/exotic Veterinarians. In the last 17 years, she has run a small but busy bird rescue and rehabilitation clinic on the Coromandel peninsula.
Annemieke’s passion is education and working with local communities; she is involved with schools and community groups to educate the young and old about caring for our wildlife. Annemieke is employed as a casual DOC Ranger in the Coromandel Whitianga office and works on a call-out basis to attend to protected and endangered birds found by the public.
Rosalie Goldsworthy - Vice-Chair
Wildlife Rehabilitator specialising in YEP
Rosalie began rehabilitating wild birds in Days Bay, Wellington in September of 1994. Rosalie and her neighbour, Vivienne, decided to do this together and it did not take long to realise that there was a real need and they established the Eastern Bays Little Blue Penguin Foundation, as a charitable trust to help fund their work.
It was a steep learning curve and in their first year Rosalie and Vivienne helped over 270 birds, 64 of which were natives. Within 7 years they had worked with 94 different species. From the beginning they consulted with the best experts they could find – Taronga Zoo for seabirds, Silvia Durant for garden birds, Dawn Morton for natives, particularly Harriers, and many others.
Their centre closed in 2001 and Rosalie moved to Moeraki to continue the work for Penguin Rescue. She rehabs mostly penguins and manages the 2 largest Yellow-eyed penguin colonies left on mainland New Zealand, which make up 20% of the population.
As soon as Rosalie heard of the possibility of WReNNZ, she was on board straight away. There are many tricks of the trade which save lives and she is always learning and happy to share.
Claire Travers - Treasurer
Independent Contractor for Kiwi Conservation
One of Claire's earliest memories is of jumping out of bed at 3 years old to climb into her 'gummies' and go help the neighbouring farmer feed the calves. Whether she helped or not could be a moot point. But she knew then she wanted to work with animals in some way or other. Claire went on to study agriculture in the UK, and then did overseas experience which resulted in moving to NZ, on to a beef and sheep farm on the outskirts of Rotorua. It was in the late nineties that she took the side step from agriculture in to conservation.
It was at Rainbow Springs Wildlife park that Claire gained a real understanding of the uniqueness of New Zealand's flora and fauna and started rehabilitating wild birds that were brought into the facility. She was there for at least 18 years and in that time moved from working with a large variety of native species to just concentrating on kiwi, in particular participating in the Operation Nest Egg conservation programme, but also rehabilitating wild kiwi that were brought to the facility with a variety of injuries and illnesses. Claire no longer actively participates in kiwi rehabilitation - unless of course a sick kiwi gets brought to her.
Mikaylie Wilson - Committee Member
Wildlife Veterinary Nurse
Mikaylie has been a wildlife veterinary nurse for the last 19 years. She has worked at Taronga Zoo Wildlife Vet Hospital, Western Plains Zoo, Perth Zoo, Vancouver Aquarium and is currently working at Auckland Zoo. Mikaylie has also volunteered for 3-4 months at Calgary Zoo and Alaska Sealife Centre.
Mikaylie has worked with a large range of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians in Australia including: Pinnipeds, Harbour seal pups in Canada and Alaska and all NZ wildlife for the last 6.5 years.
As a commitment through Auckland Zoo, Mikaylie has been a kakapo ranger for DOC since 2013. She works on the transmitter field trips to find, check health and change the transmitters on kakapo annually and hand rears kakapo chicks on islands in the breeding season every 2-3 years.
Pauline Nijman - Committee Member
Practice Manager- Companion Animal Hospital
Massey University
Pauline has worked in animal care for over 20 years, first in a marine zoo and later with Wildbase as a nurse. Pauline has experienced extremes in native bird care- from a low budget zoo operation to providing gold standard veterinary care and rehabilitation. These experiences have shaped Pauline into a realistic and enthusiastic advocate of those caring for wildlife. Pauline has given many hours to the WRENNZ family over the years and has learnt a great deal from other rehabbers through shared experiences and conferences. Pauline is keen to support the WRENNZ members and community through active participation on the committee.