The Association of Zoos and Aquariums has a new chair, and he started out mucking out stalls. Dwight Scott, the Dana Brown president and CEO of the Saint Louis Zoo, was sworn in as the Association’s 102nd board chair at its annual conference in Portland, Oregon, on September 30. He began his career in 1994 as an animal keeper at the Kansas City Zoo and Aquarium.
“Nearly everyone who works in this field can point to a moment when an animal or a wild place changed the direction of their life. That common starting point is what makes this Association so powerful. Nature belongs to everyone, and aquariums and zoos are uniquely positioned to bring people together around it,” Scott said. “Every visit is a chance to inspire someone to protect the natural world, and our members are doing that at a scale we have never seen before.”
What does the AZA board chair actually do?
The chair leads a board of four executive officers and ten directors that sets the Association’s direction across fiduciary oversight, member services, ethics, animal wellbeing and conservation. That last cluster is the part with teeth. AZA is the body that writes and enforces the accreditation standards North American zoos and aquariums are measured against, and it runs the Species Survival Plans that decide which animals move between which institutions to keep breeding populations genetically healthy. A chair does not set those standards alone, but the chair sets what the board spends its attention on.
Scott joined the AZA board in 2019 and has previously chaired its Ethics Board. He also serves on the board of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International.
“Dwight has two personal traits, curiosity and kindness, that frame his approach to leading people and caring for animals, and that make him an outstanding choice to chair AZA’s Board of Directors,” said Dan Ashe, president and CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. “His integrity, judgment and steady leadership will guide AZA towards continued success.”
Who is Dwight Scott?
A keeper who kept going. After Kansas City in 1994, Scott worked at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden, the Tulsa Zoo and the San Diego Zoo before being appointed to lead the Saint Louis Zoo in 2022. He holds a bachelor of arts with a concentration in anthropology from the University of Missouri, Kansas City.
Thirty-some years of that career is the detail worth sitting with. The person now chairing the body that accredits the continent’s zoos and aquariums has done the 6 a.m. shift in an animal building, and the route from there to here runs through five collections of very different sizes.
Who else joined the board?
Three new directors were seated alongside Scott: Hollie Colahan, executive director of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson; Jon Dohlin, CEO and zoo director of the Fresno Chaffee Zoo; and Michael “Hap” Fatzinger, director of the North Carolina Aquariums Division, which runs the aquariums at Roanoke Island in Manteo, Pine Knoll Shores and Fort Fisher in Kure Beach, along with Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head. The Fort Fisher aquarium is currently closed for construction.
The rest of the executive slate, as AZA lists it, is Douglas Piekarz as chair-elect, Charles Hopper as vice chair and Christopher Dold as immediate past chair, with Dan Ashe sitting ex officio as president and CEO.
For the Saint Louis Zoo the appointment lands in a busy stretch. Its elephant herd has been in the news twice this month, and its veterinary team has spent the year on work that AZA institutions share rather than hoard.
The Saint Louis Zoo announced the appointment, and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums lists its current board in full. We covered the zoo’s work on a herpesvirus vaccine in the story of Jet and the EEHV mRNA trial, and its elephant program again in Raja’s departure on an SSP recommendation.
Quick answers
- Who is the new chair of the AZA Board of Directors?
Dwight Scott, the Dana Brown president and CEO of the Saint Louis Zoo. He is the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ 102nd board chair and was sworn in at the AZA annual conference in Portland, Oregon, on September 30.
- What does the AZA board chair do?
The chair leads a board of four executive officers and ten directors that oversees the Association’s finances, member services, ethics, animal wellbeing and conservation work. AZA writes and enforces the accreditation standards North American zoos and aquariums are measured against and runs the Species Survival Plans that coordinate breeding between institutions.
- What is Dwight Scott’s background?
He began as an animal keeper at the Kansas City Zoo and Aquarium in 1994 and went on to work at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden, the Tulsa Zoo and the San Diego Zoo before being appointed to lead the Saint Louis Zoo in 2022. He has chaired AZA’s Ethics Board and serves on the board of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International.
- Who else joined the AZA board?
Three new directors: Hollie Colahan of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Jon Dohlin of the Fresno Chaffee Zoo and Michael “Hap” Fatzinger of the North Carolina Aquariums Division.
