Speaker Bios

Just take a look at some of our speakers....

Dr. Ritchie is a Diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners and the European College of Avian Medicine and Surgery. He obtained his DVM from the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine in 1985 and his PhD in Medical Microbiology from the same institution in 1990. As a member of the multidiscipline Emerging Diseases Research Group at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Ritchie has been involved in characterization of the PBFD virus, development of a DNA probe based assay for PBFD virus, development of the avian polyomavirus vaccine and development of DNA probe based assays to detect polyomavirus, adenovirus, and Pacheco’s disease virus. In conjunction with colleagues at LSU, the Emerging Diseases Research Group has developed and tested assays for detecting chlamydial nucleic acid in clinical samples and are involved with the LSU group in testing a vaccine to prevent chlamydiosis. Currently, the Research Group is working on characterization of the suspect PDD virus and testing subunit vaccines for PBFD virus and avian polyomavirus. The Group is also working in conjunction with colleagues at LSU and the University of Minnesota on an avian specific vaccine to prevent West Nile virus associated deaths. The Research Group has published more than 50 scientific publications on infectious diseases of companion birds and Dr. Ritchie has edited 2 textbooks; Avian Medicine: Principles and Application and Avian Viruses: Function and Control.

Speaker - Paul Welch, DVM, Forest Trails Animal Hospital, TulsaDr. Paul Welch has been a member of the Association of Avian Veterinarians for more than two decades and is the current treasurer and the AAV president-elect for 2004. After graduating from the Oklahoma College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Welch began his practice, Forest Trails Animal Hospital, Tulsa, in 1983. As the popularity of companion parrots has grown, avian clients now compromise over one quarter of his practice.Dr. Welch is well known for commitment and service in the many organizations of which he is a member. He serves on the Tulsa County Veterinary Medical Board, and the Oklahoma State University College of Veterinary Medicine Admissions Committee and is a long time member of both the American and Oklahoma Veterinary Medical Associations. He currently works with numerous wildlife and companion animal rescue organizations and has participated in several committees for the Tulsa ZooLittle wonder that Dr. Welch is so busy. But he's never too busy for the OAS. He is an honorary lifetime member of the Oklahoma Aviculture Society and frequent lecturer for our club.

Dr. Carol Best is a native Tulsan who graduated from Edison High School and obtained a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Degree from Oklahoma State University.She has always had a love for animals and an interest in their care and well-being. In junior and senior high school Dr. Best worked part-time at a local veterinarian hospital assisting in all areas of veterinary care. After attaining her degree, she returned to Tulsa to begin her veterinary practice. She recently moved her clinic, Best Friends Veterinarian Hospital, to a more spacious facility located in southeast Tulsa.Dr. Best is a member of the Association of Avian Veterinarians and keeps current on the changes in avian medicine by attending avian conferences regularly.In addition to her many other pets, including horses, dogs, cats, chickens, and pea fowl, Dr. Best has pet parrots and raises Congo and Timneh African Greys. Her aviary is Best Friends Aviary.She also trains and shows her two dogs in obedience and agility.Dr. Best is one of the local avian veterinarians that the OAS is proud to have as a member. Her practice, Best Friends Veterinary Hospital, is located at 5417 S. Mingo Road. The phone number is (918) 663-7595.

Kit Manchester is the owner of Birds Just Wanna Have Fun, an online bird toy store, www.BirdsJustWannaHaveFun.com. She is currently the president of the Austin bird club. Several years ago when she and her husband got their first big bird, a Goffin's cockatoo, Kit found she wasn't happy with the quality, safety, cost, and selection of toys for larger birds so she started designing and making her own. This bird toy quest turned into a business when she decided she'd had enough of healthcare administration. She needed to have more fun and spend time with her husband and their bird. Kit is active in the bird and business community. In addition to her work with the Austin bird club, she is a member and alternate American Federation of Aviculture representative for the Alamo Exhibition Bird Club in San Antonio, Texas. She volunteers with the Emergency Animal Rescue Service (EARS), a national organization similar to the American Red Cross, providing disaster shelter and rescue for animals. She also mentors small business owners. She has conducted toy making workshops at Parrot Festival, PBIC Convention (CPQ in Minnesota), Grey Play (African Grey conference in Atlanta, GA), and for numerous bird clubs. She firmly believes it shouldn't cost a fortune or take much time to have lots of fun, creative toys for your birds -- AND, you don't need to be good at crafts. She teaches toy design based on a framework she developed that classifies toys by their structure and function. She comes from a long line of teachers and loves to share her toy knowledge with other parrot owners.

Sally is the editor of Companion Parrot Quarterly.

Laura's family always had at least one bird. She acquired her first bird, a cockatiel, in the summer of 1981 and started showing birds that fall. Laura and Richard, her husband, have enjoyed working with a variety of birds over the years such as the Plush-crested Jay, Double Yellow-Headed Amazons, Macaws, Meyers, Nanday Conures, Cockatoos, several kinds of finches, doves, Starlings and Emus - to name just a few. Her work with softbills, parrots, finches, cockatiels and canaries has been very rewarding. Currently, Laura and Richard have several finches and a few hookbills. Their two sons, Miles, eight, and Cole, five, are working with ringneck doves to get started with birds. Laura has enjoyed showing birds from the start and has shown birds almost every year since 1981. In 1986-87, she became a judge for the National Finch and Softbill Society . Laura has traveled to several shows across the country both as a judge and as a participant. She has judged at shows in Calf., Conn., TX., CO, KS, MO, and OK. Each of the shows Laura has attended, she says, are filled with interesting bird lovers.

Gail Martin, under the pen name of Elizabeth Aaron, is the author of "My Human, My Slave," a popular parrot book.. She is also the web mistress of toolady.com, a website with a wealth of bird information.Gail has been involved in bird conservation and conservatorship for over 10 years. While living in Mexico, she was instrumental in the development of Avario Xman-Ha, in Playa del Carmen. At the moment, five of the birds she rescued while living in Mexico are still residents of the beautiful free-flight park. She brought her pet Scarlet Macaw, Echo, back with her from Mexico and, one by one has accumulated birds that other people either did not want or that rescue organizations deemed unadoptable.She is the Director of "Echo's Haven, Inc.," a Sanctuary for these unwanted birds. Gail is the curator of "Echo's Haven" Macaw Sanctuary, where birds have a home for life.

Chris Ashley
August 25, 2002

Ms. Chris Ashley, Zookeeper in the Tulsa Zoo's Tropical American Rain Forest, graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science in Zoology. It will be ten years in December when Chris first came to work at the Tulsa Zoo where it has been her responsibility to care for the birds; she's worked in the Rain Forest since it opened in 1997. Although she doesn't have any pet birds at home, Chris says that she has a pair of handfed Scarlet Macaws that reside in her office and that they are her pets! Chris is married to a police officer and has two children, a dog and two cats.

Miranda Suvak graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science, majoring in zoology. She has worked with science, animals, and children most of her life. While in Norman she worked at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History in the Education department and taught science labs and classes to students visiting the museum (pre-kindergarten through high school). Through school and her family, Miranda has cared for, bred, or taught about most kinds of animals - fish, small mammals, reptiles, & birds. Her particular interests in working with animals are nutrition, genetics, breeding, and habitat design & enrichment. Miranda's interest in parrots began five years ago when her family got a baby Umbrella Cockatoo, Zazu. She was captivated by such a snugly, interactive pet that she attended a small bird fair two days after moving out of the school dorms. At the fair, Miranda found her own "darling" to share her life, Keely, a female baby Senegal. Miranda also works in her family's business, PeeWee's Playpen. Her mother, Linda Kaye, and she began by making fun, creative toys for small parrots with big beaks (like PeeWee, one of their Pacific Parrotlets). They built custom-designed playpens and invented many different toys for all kinds of birds. Soon they were going to bird shows in many states in the region (PeeWee's Playpen has been to Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and of course here in Oklahoma). Soon they had outgrown the small utility trailer and now travel with a large trailer attached to a full-size pickup with a climate-controlled camper for the birds! PeeWee's Playpen Internet store was a natural extension of Miranda's and Linda Kaye's toy-making efforts. After many months of work and phone calls to computer help desks, they now get enough work that Linda Kaye works full-time with the Internet sales and handfeeding and socializing all of their babies. PeeWee's Playpen is usually on the road to shows 2-3 weekends a month.Miranda was among the young aviculturists featured in an article in the January 2001 issue of Bird Talk Magazine. She breeds several species of parrots and especially enjoy the genetic manipulations involved in breeding her Peachfaced Lovebirds. Currently, she breeds lovebirds, Parrotlets, Senegals, and Greencheek Conures. She also shares her home with Wizard, her Cairn Terrier, and Pooka, her Holland lop bunny.

Julie Weiss Murad, affectionately known as The Birdbrain, has been involved with companion parrots for nearly thirty years. She is a national avian behaviorist based in Colorado. Ms. Murad employs many ideas pioneered by Sally Blanchard which focus upon the theme of nurturing guidance.Ms. Murad is also founder and president of The Gabriel Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation located in Colorado. It is dedicated to educating the public about the complex needs of psittacine birds, as well as providing rescue, rehabilitation, and sanctuary for parrots no longer provide for or wanted.Among the menagerie that live with Julie are two Hyacinth Macaws, Macana and Goober; a 20-plus year old Triton Cockatoo, Casper; two Rose-breasted Cockatoos, Romeo and Juliette; a male and female Vosmaeri Eclectus, Elliot and Lenore; along with Poncho, a Blue-fronted Amazon, and Mookie, a Congo African Grey, two 40-plus year old Blue-and-Gold Macaws, Shadrack and Eugene. Ms. Murad opened The Birdbrain in Aspen in late 1995 to provide some of the very best quality enrichment products available to parrots today. She also owns two bird food manufacturing businesses, Max Snax*, and Greenfeather Goodies*. All profits from The Birdbrain*, Max Snax* and Greenfeather Goodies* help support the needs of The Gabriel Foundation's* five programs for companion parrots. These ancillary businesses also contribute to a variety of avian research programs and avicultural developments dedicated to the improvement of the lives of companion birds everywhere and conservation of those in the wild.

Marie has had the fortunate opportunity to observe Amazon parrots frequently in their native habitat. She leads small groups of visitors on ecotours to see Double Yellow-headed, Red-lored, and Red-headed Amazons and other neo-tropical birds flying free in the wilds of Mexico. Despite the tropical heat and humidity, Marie recalls the goosebumps that raised seeing them for the first time, flying and squawking overhead! This experience has intensely influenced her understanding of their behaviors and needs in captivity. She is bilingual and has worked with some of the researchers currently investigating Amazons in the field in Mexico.Marie has been raising and breeding Amazona oratrix (Double Yellow-headed Amazon) exclusively for 21 years at her small aviary, Vista de Pájaro. All birds at her aviary remain pets and are handled frequently, even though breeding. Marie writes about Amazons regularly, gives presentations and consults on behavior and handling. Marie is the Minnesota delegate of The Amazona Society and the host of the AOL Amazon Parrot Board.