Join award winning author, Kathi Diamant as she discusses her new book, "Heart of the Zoo: How San Diego Zoo Director Chuck Bieler Earned His Stripes," the extraordinary story of how Chuck Bieler saved the San Diego Zoo and helped to create an international conservation organization where all wildlife thrives.In the 1970s, a new era for zoos dawned as the world became aware of the challenges facing wildlife. To help save shrinking habitats and endangered wildlife populations, zoos had to evolve from their role as living museums to centers of conservation. Working as executive director and then development director, Bieler helped usher in a brighter future for wildlife around the globe, launching international conservation efforts, navigating economic challenges, and creating a new blueprint for habitats.About Kathi DiamantActress, author, TV producer/anchor and San Diego State University adjunct professor Kathi Diamant has been involved with the San Diego Zoo since arriving i
Column: San Diego Zoo author turns animal stories into human inspiration [The San Diego Union-Tribune]
When she thinks back on her long and colorful history with the San Diego Zoo, which started when she joined the public relations department in 1978, author Georgeanne Irvine has a menagerie of memories that are as exotic as the zoo’s population itself.
There were the times Irvine accompanied longtime ambassador and animal advocate Joan Embery on her trips to “The Tonight Show,” where Embery introduced a game Johnny Carson to the telegenic wonders of feeding elephants, cooing over tiger cubs and gazing into the beady little eyes of Goolara, the rare albino koala. There was the 1987 visit by giant pandas Basi and Yuan Yuan, whose 200-day residency at the zoo was pure, well, panda-monium. There was the time Irvine gave Julie Andrews a tour of the zoo, and Andrews sang her a little ditty about the joys of wallowing in the mud.
Print
When she thinks back on her long and colorful history with the San Diego Zoo, which started when she joined the public relations department in 1978, author Georgeanne Irvine has a menagerie of memories that are as exotic as the zoo’s population itself.
There were the times Irvine accompanied longtime ambassador and animal advocate Joan Embery on her trips to “The Tonight Show,” where Embery introduced a game Johnny Carson to the telegenic wonders of feeding elephants, cooing over tiger cubs and gazing into the beady little eyes of Goolara, the rare albino koala. There was the 1987 visit by giant pandas Basi and Yuan Yuan, whose 200-day residency at the zoo was pure, well, panda-monium. There was the time Irvine gave Julie Andrews a tour of the zoo, and Andrews sang her a little ditty about the joys of wallowing in the mud.