SPEAKERS & EVENTS
NEXT EVENT
EXPLORERS CLUB ST. LOUIS CHAPTER
Speaker Series Event
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Justin M. Elden
Curator of Herpetology & Aquatics
Director, Center for Conservation in Western Asia
Director, Ron and Karen Goellner Center for Hellbender Conservation
St. Louis Zoo
Tour of the Herpetology Building & Conservation Labs
Photos & Stories of these animals in the wild
FREE EVENT – Drinks/Dinner not served for this event.
5:30 p.m. St. Louis Zoo
PARK IN THE NORTH LOT (let gate attendant know you are attending a presentation to park for FREE)
Living World lower level Bayer Lecture Theatre for Presentation RED STAR ON MAP BELOW
If needed, Zoo employees will be available to guide you.
6:00 p.m. Walk to the Herpetarium for VIP tour of the Herpetology Department’s conservation labs
YELLOW STAR ON MAP BELOW
The Saint Louis Zoo’s Herpetology department has cultivated a robust legacy of global wildlife conservation, spanning from the rugged highlands of Armenia to the rainforests of Ecuador and the caves and rivers of the Ozarks. Thanks to the Zoo’s WildCare Institute and external collaborators, the Zoo has made great strides in saving and protecting endangered species by meshing field research and captive management. In this presentation, Justin Elden, the Curator of Herpetology and Director of Herpetology-related WildCare Institute programs, will speak on the Zoo’s contributions to the study and preservation of some of the Earth’s most remarkable creatures both at the Zoo’s Herpetarium
and in the field. Following this presentation will be a special VIP tour of the Herpetology Department’s conservation labs.
Please RSVP to Becky Doane at Rdoane@thompsoncoburn.com
EXPLORERS CLUB ST. LOUIS CHAPTER
Speaker Series Event
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Tom and Ulrike Schlafly Presenting “Explore with the Schlaflys”
Location: Deer Creek Club, 9861 Deer Creek Hill, St. Louis, MO 63124
Membership courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. R. Holton
5:15 p.m. Members meeting
6:00 p.m. Cocktails (cash bar)
6:45 p.m. Dinner Members $70
Non-Members $75
7:30 p.m. Presentation
Ulrike and Tom Schlafly were both enthusiastic globetrotters who had each visited six continents before their wedding in 1995. As members of The Garden Club of America they traveled together through the Visiting Gardens Program.
Join your fellow Explorers as Ulrike and Tom share photographs and stories from Southeast Asia, Northern Europe, South Africa and Cuba in a 40 minute presentation.
Checks payable to Explorers Club St. Louis Chapter
mail to Thompson Coburn, LLP, Attention Becky Doane, One US
Bank Plaza, St. Louis, MO 63101.
OR Venmo – @explorersstlouischapter
EXPLORERS CLUB ST. LOUIS CHAPTER
Speaker Series Event
Thursday, May 23, 2024
St. Louis International Airport and What the Future Holds
Presented by
Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegger
Director of Airports, St. Louis Lambert International Airport
Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge
Director of Airports
Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge has been the Director of St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL) since January 2010 as appointed by St. Louis City Mayor Francis Slay.
The Airport is the primary air carrier facility for the St. Louis region that serves nearly 16 million passengers annually. Ms. Hamm-Niebruegge manages 500 employees with revenues of more than 183 million dollars in 2019. She is also Chairwoman of the 17-member St. Louis Airport Commission.
Prior to STL, Ms. Hamm-Niebruegge logged over 25 years in aviation management positions with American Airlines, Trans World Airlines (TWA) and Ozark Air Lines; a majority of her career has been based in St. Louis, Missouri. Ms. Hamm-Niebruegge retired in 2009 as the Managing Director of American Airlines’ St. Louis operation, a position she held beginning in 2002. Before the American and TWA merger, she held the position of Vice President of TWA’s North American Operations, responsible for an $800 million budget encompassing 100 airports and 8,000 TWA employees.
Ms. Hamm-Niebruegge currently serves as chairperson on the Airport Oversight Committee of the Airport Cooperative Research Program, a research program supported by the FAA. She formerly served on the National Freight Advisory Committee, an advisory board serving the U.S. Department of Transportation. She is currently serving as chair of the board of Christian Hospital (BJC HealthCare) and a board member for BJC. She also serves as a board member for several other organizations, including Greater St. Louis Inc., the International Women’s Forum, Ranken Technical College and the St. Louis Civic Pride Foundation. She’s the former Chairperson of the Advisory Board of John Cook School of Business at Saint Louis University and a past President of the Board Habitat for Humanity Saint Louis.
EXPLORERS CLUB ST. LOUIS CHAPTER
Speaker Series Event
Thursday, June 27, 2024
FEATURING
Marguerite Garrick and Director of Animal Care and Conservation Fred Goana
Presenting “Conservation Work with the Endangered Wolf Center”
Location: The Endangered Wolf Center, 6750 Tyson Valley Road, 63025
Out 44 just past Lone Elk Park
5:15 p.m. Members meeting
6:00 p.m. Wine will be served and heavy appetizers passed
Members $35 Non-Members $40 ($25 tax deductible)
6:45 p.m. Presentation
In 1971 former Explorer’s Club Chapter Chair Carol Perkins and her husband Marlin (also a longtime TEC member) founded The Endangered Wolf Center in an attempt to prevent the certain extinction of two wolf species. The EWC is nestled inside 2000 acres of native woodland on the edge of the Ozark Highlands in Washington University’s Tyson Research Center. In partnership with the USFWS and others The EWC has carefully and successfully helped prevent the extinction of The Mexican Gray and The Red Wolf. And along with the USFWS and other partners have successfully reintroduced small populations of Mexican Gray and Red wolves back into the wild in protected areas.
Join their daughter Marguerite Garrick MN 03 and The EWC’s Executive Director Fred Goana for a fun and inspiring evening learning about the realization of the Perkins’s vision and creative ways they’ve developed to increase biodiversity in both species. We’ll also have up-close viewing of the beautiful animals who reside there capped off with a breathtaking serenade by the wolves as the sun sets.
Please check out their website Home – Endangered Wolf Center
Golf carts are available for the walking tour. Please let Becky know at time of RSVP that you’d like one. She will be sure it’s all set when you arrive.
Checks payable to Explorers Club St. Louis Chapter
mail to Thompson Coburn, LLP, Attention Becky Doane
One US Bank Plaza, St. Louis, MO 63101.
OR Venmo – @explorersstlouischapter
EXPLORERS CLUB ST. LOUIS CHAPTER
Speaker Series Event
October 30, 2024
Presented by
Randy and Fiona Woods
Jupiter’s Way
Recent adventures of motor vessel Jupiter and her crew in Alaska and British Columbia.
Location: MAC West, 1777 Des Peres Rd, St. Louis, MO 63131
5:15 p.m. Members meeting-Alcove Room
6:00 p.m. Cocktails (cash bar) – West Wing Banquet Room
6:45 p.m. Heavy Hors ’devours
7:30 p.m. Presentation Members $25 Guests $30
Fiona and Randy Woods splashed down from the three dimensional world of professional and sport ballooning onto the shifting seas. Their four adult children are scattered across the world, some with children of their own in tow. Over three watery decades the Woods progressed from rowing, sailing and outboard skiffs to lobster boats, inter-island commuters, and then onto live-aboard yachts. After ten years seasonally exploring the waters of the Atlantic and the Great Lakes aboard their Grand Banks Eastbay, Moonshadow, the Woods accepted delivery in 2012 of Jupiter, a robust and accommodating pilothouse motor yacht.
Fiona and Randy continued to explore the Atlantic coast until the spring of 2018 when they transported Jupiter to British Columbia to begin the next adventure: navigating the inside and outside passages of Puget Sound, British Columbia and Southeast Alaska.
The Woods have cruised over 50,000 nautical miles together, and each hold US Coast Guard 100 Ton Masters credentials. They are cross-trained on the boat’s mechanical, navigational and domestic systems, and often bicker about who will pilot Jupiter.
JUPITER is a 2013 Grand Banks Aleutian Raised Pilothouse Motor Yacht. She is a production fiberglass build, ordered and extensively modified by the owners to be the cruising couple’s ultimate vessel. Jupiter was built in Malaysia, commissioned in Maryland and US registered.
JUPITER is the Roman King of the Gods and the fifth planet from the Sun. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity, is honored in the fourth movement of Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite, The Planets. This music also provides the melody for a favorite patriotic English hymn, honoring Fiona’s British heritage. JUPITER is easily spelled and readily understood during radio communications.
Checks payable to Explorers Club St. Louis Chapter, mail to Thompson Coburn, LLP, Attention
Becky Doane, One US Bank Plaza, St. Louis, MO 63101.
OR Venmo – @explorersstlouischapter
