Selena Creed
Operations and Policy
Selena is the Senior Wildlife Biologist for Wayne County Airport Authority where she oversees the wildlife hazard management programs at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and Willow Run Airport. She has a degree in Wildlife Management from Lake Superior State University and is an FAA-Qualified Airport Wildlife Biologist. Selena is dedicated to leveraging GIS to further build a data-driven program that makes wildlife management decisions based on documented observations and observable trends. She is passionate about aviation safety and wildlife conservation and is, especially, interested in the intersection of the two. She lives in southeast Michigan with her wife, their dog, and her red-tailed hawk. In her free time, Selena enjoys hunting fair chase game, foraging, weightlifting, and falconry.
Troy Levanen
Research and Development
Troy has worked at Alaska for 32.5 years, including 24 in Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering and 8.5 in Maintenance and Engineering Safety. He is a licensed Airframe and Powerplant Aircraft Technician. He is currently the Director of Maintenance Operations Safety for Alaska Air Group, overseeing the maintenance and engineering safety aspects of all flights operated for Alaska, including flights operated by Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air, SkyWest Airlines, and others.
Troy has worked with Bird Strike USA for 5 years, serving as an Airlines Representative on the Steering Committee for 4 years and also serving on the R&D and Ops Policy Sub-Committees. He has currently been the Vice-Chair of the R&D Sub-Committee for almost 1 year.
He is also a Certified Aircraft Accident Investigator who has performed hundreds of investigations of all sizes, including some major wildlife strikes. In a former role as the leader of an AOG Team at the airline for many years, Troy was responsible for the safe repair and return to service for those same type of accidents, including some wildlife strikes that took longer than a month to repair.
Rachael Wickliffe
Membership Committee Chair
Rachael Wickliffe is currently the Wildlife Management Specialist for the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) at MCO. She graduated from Auburn University in 2017, with a degree in Wildlife Ecology and Management. After graduation, Rachael found herself moving to Orlando and working for Walt Disney World as a Pest Management Technician and then later a Pest Management K9 Handler. After two years with Disney, she was eager to get back into the wildlife world and secured her current position at MCO.
Jim Laughlin
Conference
James (Jim) is the current Chair of the Annual Bird Strike Planning Committee for Bird Strike USA. Jim is also a Certified Airport Wildlife Biologist for the US Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services (USDA-APHIS-WS) at Beale AFB, California where he is the Bird/wildlife Aircraft Strike Hazard (BASH) Program Manager. He is responsible for implementing the BASH program for the base. Prior to Wildlife Services, he worked for California Waterfowl Association as the Waterfowl Biologist Field Projects Coordinator. Jim graduated from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Management.
Matthew Powers
Education and Outreach
Matthew Powers has held the title of Airport Operations Supervisor at the Dane County Regional Airport (DCRA) for the past 9 years and is responsible for the daily enforcement of FAA Part 139 and TSA Part 1542 as well as State, County, and Local regulations. Before joining DCRA, Matthew held similar responsibilities at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. Matthew has a keen interest in wildlife mitigation, airfield construction management, and Irregular Operations, and their impact on the airport environment. Matthew holds a private pilot’s license and has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Aviation Management from Louisiana Tech University. Matthew has been a member of Bird Strike Committee (BSC) USA for the past 4 years and has participated in outreach and education activities such as EAA/AirVenture on several occasions.
Jeff Follett
Communications
Jeff draws on 20 years of project and people management in leading Avisure’s team. He has a demonstrated record of achievement in programmatic areas such as project design and implementation, risk management, stakeholder consultation and training, and monitoring and evaluation. Jeff believes in contributing to the industry in which he works, holding a Standing Committee Chair position with the Bird Strike Committee USA and providing technical advice for industry documents including the National Airports Safeguarding Framework Guideline C (Managing the Risk of Wildlife Strikes in the Vicinity of Airports) and ICAO Doc 9332 [Manual on the ICAO Bird Strike Information System (IBIS)] . He has assisted clients in North America, Oceania, Southeast Asia and the Middle East to manage their wildlife hazards through training, hazard assessments, active management, and the development of management plans.
