Cheryl Asa, PhD; AZA Reproductive Management Center
Advisory Board Chair, AZA Reproductive Management Center
Dr. Cheryl Asa co-founded the contraception program for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) that developed into the AZA Wildlife Contraception Center and then expanded to become the AZA Reproductive Management Center (RMC). She was director of that program for almost 30 years, as well as director of the Saint Louis Zoo’s Research Department (Behavioral and Reproductive Sciences). Since retiring she has served as Chair of the RMC Advisory Board and is an affiliate scientist for the Zoo. While heading the Zoo’s research program, she also taught courses for 25 years at Washington University and Saint Louis University in Endocrinology, Behavioral Endocrinology, and Animal Behavior.
She has undergraduate degrees in Zoology and Psychology and a PhD in Endocrinology and Reproductive Physiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her post-doctoral research included studies of wolves at the University of Minnesota and of sperm ultrastructure at Rockefeller University in New York. Based on her subsequent work on feral horse fertility control for the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada, she was invited to join a National Academy of Sciences committee that evaluated BLM horse management. Because of her extensive experience in contraception, she co-edited the book, Wildlife Contraception, and is a scientific advisor for the Botstiber Institute for Wildlife Fertility Control and for Michelson Found Animals.
