Contact Our Staff

Greg Kaltenecker co-founded IBO in 1992.  He received his BS in Biology and his MS in Raptor Biology from Boise State University. Greg currently holds the Diane and Winston Moore Endowed Chair for the Director of the Intermountain Bird Observatory.  Greg’s research passion is bird migration, and his lifelong pursuit is to educate the public about birds, science, and conservation. He believes that a strong public community presence is critical to being an effective scientist, and that the easiest way to accomplish conservation is through active public engagement.

Jay Carlisle is the Research Director of IBO and an Associate Research Faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences at Boise State.  He has worked with the Intermountain Bird Observatory since 1996 and Jay’s research interests are focused on the stopover ecology, habitat needs, and conservation of migratory landbirds in the West and in Latin America.  In his free time, Jay enjoys birding, soccer, hiking, trying to speak Spanish, and international travel.

Rob joined IBO in 2009 as a volunteer. This was his first step as a biologist after a 21-year career at HP. After completing a MS Degree in Raptor Biology, Rob joined IBO full time in 2013. Rob leads IBO Team Goshawk, a long-term study of goshawk ecology within the Intermountain West, and Project WAfLS, an eight state survey of Short-eared Owls. His other projects include Flammulated Owls, Great Gray Owls, woodpeckers (all ten species in Idaho), Mountain Quail, Belted Kingfishers, and Black Swifts. He has studied raptor migration in Tarifa, Spain and raptor populations in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique.

Heidi joined IBO in 2008 when she volunteered as an undergrad intern at Lucky Peak. She worked at IBO throughout her bachelor’s degree, then went on to earn her M.S. in Biology from Boise State in 2014, where she studied the impacts of traffic noise on migrating songbirds. As Education Director Heidi coordinates our Boise River Research Station, runs our social media pages, conducts field trips, and teaches courses. Heidi focuses on using IBO’s strengths in hands-on science and community involvement to integrate K-12 science education with bird conservation.

Heather joined the IBO team in 2015 as a research biologist and works on the Long-billed Curlew Satellite Tracking program and as a bander for the Hummingbird Monitoring project. She has since deepened her role within the organization by serving as Community Science Coordinator. She is passionate about integrating her fieldwork with education, bringing a unique perspective to schools with “Curlews in the Classroom” programming and Hunter’s Ed classes with “Know Your Target” education. Heather also serves as the state-wide volunteer coordinator for the Short-eared Owl landscape study (WAfLS), as well as coordinating visitors to IBO’s banding research stations.

Jeremy transitioned from a seasonal technician to full-time IBO staff in 2016 and serves primarily as a co-manager of the large IMBCR point-count project in Idaho and Utah.  He also helped pilot a bioacoustics project at Lucky Peak, and has worked to install Motus towers in collaboration with MPG Ranch from Montana.  He is mostly interested in passive research/monitoring techniques and new technologies that give us more information and new perspectives into the avian world.  He enjoys getting out in the field to train technicians on bird identification and to aid in the various IBO projects.

After completing three seasons as a technician for the Integrated Monitoring Bird Conservation Region (IMBCR) Program, Lesley transitioned to a full-time research biologist role at IBO in 2022 . Since 2018, she has worked as a technician and research assistant on wildlife conservation projects in Alabama, Idaho, Massachusetts, Montana, New Mexico, and Rhode Island. She contributed to a variety of projects focused on the ecology of breeding birds, habitat use of wintering sea ducks and waterfowl, occupancy of threatened and endangered amphibians and reptiles, and patterns of cold-stunned endangered sea turtles. She will lead IBO’s Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo project and Pinyon Jay project, and co-manage the IMBCR program in Montana.

Ryan joined the IBO crew following a fellowship with the NASA DEVELOP program where he led projects leveraging remote sensing for ecological applications. His background is in ecology working cross-taxa with experience in mammalogy, herpetology, and ornithology on projects across North America and abroad. He received his Masters studying climate and wildfire dynamics associated with a sky island salamander in New Mexico. However, birds are his true passion, and he is stoked to be part of the great work IBO does! Before joining full-time, he spent several seasons with the IMBCR program in Northern Idaho and Western Montana. He now is managing projects in the USFS Northern Region, working with the endemic Cassia Crossbill, and contributing where he can to a number of IBO monitoring efforts.

Jenna joined IBO in 2022 after working many years as a wildlife biologist and field technician in Alaska and across the interior West. In 2024 she moved on from IBO to pursue other work. To reach us about projects that Jenna formerly managed, contact our general email address IBO@boisestate.edu and we will direct you to the correct staff member.