Kim Young-Overton, Ph.D.

Former Director, Kaza Program/Cheetah Program

Kim Young-Overton has enjoyed a career in threatened species and ecosystem management across southern Africa and within New Zealand. Her Ph.D. focused on the understanding of the spatial requirements for the conservation of large mammals at vast spatial scales across southern Africa with a focus on African elephants — specifically the consequences of human disturbances on elephant movement patterns and demography. Kim has led several international, national, regional and local scale conservation projects and is currently leading the establishment of a large carnivore coalition of partners across the vast Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area; the world’s largest transfrontier park and Africa’s largest conservation landscape. She is particularly interested in the conservation of wildlife at large spatial scales and is committed to working at the interface between science and conservation management to ensure that managers are afforded the best available scientific information in a readily accessible form. Kim lives with her husband Dr. Jake Overton, who is the Program Manager for the Kafue Cheetah Program, together with their two boys Orion and Canyon at their field base situated at Kafue National Park in Zambia.