Kauffman Museum brings a distinguished Bethel College alumnus to campus for the next program associated with the museum’s current special exhibit.
The Sunday-Afternoon-at-the-Museum event with Stan Senner, Missoula, Mont., vice president for bird conservation (retired) at the National Audubon Society, will be May 5 at 3 p.m. in the museum auditorium.
Senner’s talk is titled “Birds and Birders Connect Kansas to the World.”
The presentation is in conjunction with “A Day with the Birds: Community Science & the Audubon Christmas Bird Count,” the Kauffman Museum special exhibit that celebrates how Harvey County is part of the world’s oldest citizen science initiative.
Senner will draw on 50 years’ experience in ornithology and natural resource conservation to describe the amazing feats of migratory birds, how they connect Kansas to distant lands and peoples, and what their migrations mean for bird conservation at home and abroad.
Senner graduated from Bethel in 1973 with a B.A. in biology and environmental studies and earned an M.S. in biology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
From 1978-92, he held positions as Alaska representative for The Wilderness Society; professional staff member for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries; executive director of the Hawk Mountain bird sanctuary in Pennsylvania; and restoration program manager for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game following the catastrophic Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Senner began working for the National Audubon Society in 1992 as director of the Migratory Bird Conservation Program. He has held several roles with Audubon over the years, as well as spending four years as science coordinator for the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, and another 4½ as director of conservation science for the Ocean Conservancy.
He retired in 2021 as Audubon’s VP for bird conservation.
In 2019, Senner received the Allan Baker Lifetime Achievement Award for Shorebird Conservation from the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Group. In 2023, the American Ornithological Society presented him with the Ralph W. Schreiber Conservation Award.
Senner has been integral to implementing the Pacific Americas Shorebird Conservation Strategy; creating Audubon’s Important Bird Area (IBA) program in the United States; protecting the Arctic Wildlife Refuge; and combating the reinterpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, among much else.
Regular Kauffman Museum hours are Tues.-Fri. 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Sat.-Sun. 1:30-4:30 p.m., closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission to the special exhibit, “A Day with the Birds,” and permanent exhibits – “Of Land and People,” “Mirror of the Martyrs” and “Mennonite Immigrant Furniture” – is $5 for adults, $3 for children ages 6-16, and free to Kauffman Museum members and children under 6. The museum store is open during regular museum hours. See kauffmanmuseum.org or the museum Facebook page for more information.
