Jane Doherty

Jane Doherty originally trained as a vet in the mid-1980s. With an interest in zoonoses and opportunities for cross-country collaboration in southern Africa around veterinary public health, she soon shifted into epidemiology and human public health. She worked for the Centre for Health Policy at the University of the Witwatersrand in the late 1980s, where she became involved in critiquing the apartheid health care system and developing policy options for the post-apartheid government, especially in financing, human resources and hospital management. Her early research involved household surveys and expenditure reviews, but her later research was qualitative in nature, where she specialised in stakeholder interviews. She participated in several regional projects with other African, Latin American and South-East Asian partners, and has an interest in capacity-building for research.

With her acceptance onto the MSc in Conservation Biology, Jane is returning to her first passion. She is interested in bird behaviour and breeding ecology, as well as the conservation and restoration of bird habitats. Jane loves the bushveld and all sorts of raptors, as she spent most of her life in Gauteng. With her recent move to Cape Town, she has also become enthusiastic about the opportunities for bird conservation in the city, especially along urban rivers. She hopes to use her experience in mixed methods research, policy analysis and stakeholder engagement to contribute towards strategies for urban conservation efforts, as well as improving public appreciation of urban biodiversity and support for restoration of degraded habitats.

Thesis: Does the Karoo population of Martial Eagles have the potential to buffer the species’ national decline? (Supervisors: A/Prof. Arjun Amar, Dr Gareth Tate (EWT).