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Lucy Spelman is a board-certified zoo and wildlife veterinarian with degrees from Brown University and the University of California at Davis. During her tenure as the first woman and youngest person to head the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, she brought two giant pandas to the US from China. She worked as a consultant for Animal Planet before moving to central Africa to run the field program for the Gorilla Doctors. Since returning home in 2009, she has been teaching biology to students at the Rhode Island School of Design. In 2015, she founded Creature Conserve to provide ways for artists and scientists to work together for the benefit of all animals. She is the author of 40 scientific articles, the National Geographic Animal Encyclopedia, and The Rhino with Glue-on Shoes.