- Zoos: A Historical Perspective from Smithsonian Institution Libraries
The National Zoological Park is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums.
AZA
Brandie Smith, Senior Curator
Animals
Brandie joined the National Zoo’s Animal Care staff in 2008. She came to the zoo after ten years at the Association for Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), where she was vice president of animal conservation, and responsible for facilitating, promoting, and supporting the cooperative conservation and scientific activities of AZA’s more than 200 member institutions and almost 1,000 animal programs. Brandie was an active participant in the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), where she served on WAZA's conservation committee. She was a steering committee member of the World Conservation Union’s Conservation Breeding Specialist Group and served on the Tapir Specialist Group. She has written many articles and book chapters on how zoos and aquariums can plan and manage their animal collections, and has also served as an advisor for a series of children’s books on animals.
When growing up, Brandie loved animals and always said she wanted to work in a zoo. Although her parents were a little startled by her career choice, she got her start in college as a research intern at the Pittsburgh Zoo, where she studied animal behavior. While in graduate school, Brandie was selected to be a curatorial intern at the National Zoo’s Conservation and Research Center (CRC) in Front Royal, Virginia. Since that time, she dreamed of getting a job with the National Zoo.
Brandie’s research background is in population genetics. She is currently working on her Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, focusing her research on how management can slow the loss of genetic diversity in a population. Specifically, she’s looking at ways to manage “groups” of animals—the herds and flocks and tanks of animals where it’s not always possible to select specific breeding pairs or even know who is related to whom. Her hope is that her research will allow for the development of breeding strategies for wild populations that are being managed due to conservation concerns.
She is a member of the AZA Small Population Management Advisory Group, and has been an instructor in the population biology courses for the AZA Professional Training Programs and the studbook keeper and population manager for the tiger quoll (Dasyurus maculatus). One of her proudest moments is having a baby quoll named after her while interning at CRC.
She reports to the Associate Director for Animal Care and works with the teams for Giant Pandas, Primates, Asia Trail, Asian Elephants, African Savanna, Small Mammals, and Great Cats
Contact Information
Smithsonian's
National Zoo
Department of Animal Programs
P.O. Box 37012 MRC 5507
Washington, DC 20013-7012
