Presenter

Heather Shank-Givens, BRWC's Vice-Chair, has been a volunteer wildlife rehabilitator with BRWC since 2017 and a wildlife educator since 2018. She holds federal and state permits for a non-releasable vulture wildlife ambassador, Dusty.  Over the past 7 years, in partnership with Dusty (and prior vulture ambassadors Gryphon and Vega), she's reached hundreds of people of all ages, sharing the critical role of vultures in the ecosystem and the challenges they face globally. In 2020, Heather traveled to South Africa to volunteer with VulPro – supporting rescue, rehabilitation and captive breeding of endangered Cape Vultures and African White Backed Vultures.

When not volunteering, Heather works as the Instructional Designer for We Are Sharing Hope SC (the Organ Procurement Organization for South Carolina). She's worked in the field of organ and tissue donation for 20+ years and prior to that, worked for the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Heather lives in Haymarket VA with her spouse and a menagerie of animals (vulture, ducks, chickens, cats, hermit crab, snake, turtle, bees and vermiculture worms).