Linda Elliott is the Founder, President and Center Director of the HAWAI‘I WILDLIFE CENTER.
Linda is a graduate of Kalaheo High school, attended the U. of Hawai‘i, Manoa, holds B.S. degree in Wildlife Biology from Arizona State University, a 40 hr. HAZWOPER certification and is the only oiled wildlife response manager in the region.
Linda’s passion and dedication for wildlife began before she was ten years old. She will tell you that her earliest life defining moment was when she saw the movie, Born Free. From that point forward Linda has pursued her passion for wildlife and conservation. Her father’s military career brought her family to Hawai‘i in 1974 and then began her interest in island wildlife and ecosystems. She and her husband moved to the Big Island of Hawai‘i in 1988.
Linda began her wildlife conservation career at the Honolulu Zoo with reptiles, birds and mammals, successfully running the Zoo’s wildlife health center. She developed major improvements and standards for the care of captive animals at the Zoo and for a national resort corporation, including unique public-private partnerships for State conservation programs. She originated native wildlife rehabilitation programs for the State of Hawai‘i.
Ms. Elliott began providing wildlife rehabilitation services to the State of Hawai‘i in 1988 as the Wildlife Manager of a partnership program with State and Federal wildlife agencies. A resort sponsored this program and made available a set of unique resources to support it. However, the program ended in 1994 with a change in ownership of the resort, and this left the state without a wildlife center.
Linda has been immersed in wildlife response projects for close to twenty years, working 18 oiled wildlife responses worldwide. As Rehabilitation Director for the world’s largest and most successful oiled penguin response in South Africa, Linda was instrumental in releasing 93% of 20,000 treated penguins. More recently, Linda was the Animal Care Manager working with Focus Wildlife International rescuing nearly 3,000 oiled birds, mammals and freshwater turtles at the Marshall Michigan oil pipeline leak on the Kalamazoo River, 2010.
