Barbara Callahan of International Bird Rescue was honored this week with a 2019 Legacy Award by the Pacific States/British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force. Barbara is Bird Rescue’s Senior Director of Response Services. She was recognized for her sustained excellence in devoting more than 25 years of her life to oiled wildlife response and for her leadership role at many of the major oil spills throughout the world.
The Legacy Awards honor individuals and organizations that successfully implement exemplary oil spill prevention, preparedness, or response projects. We define such exemplary projects as successful efforts that go beyond regulatory requirements to prevent, prepare for, or respond to oil spills.
The award was presented at the Oil Spill Task Force‘s annual meeting on November 13, 2019 in Bellingham, Washington.
Barbara has a wealth of international experience working in the emergency wildlife response and management. She received her B. S. in Biological Science from the University of Alaska. She has worked in oiled wildlife response, response management and rehabilitation of aquatic animals over the course of 20 years and is certified in Federal Emergency Management.
Since 1997 she has been the Response Services Director at Bird Rescue and has held the position of Bird Unit Deputy Leader in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010; the Incident Command Wildlife Coordinator for the Rena Spill in New Zealand in 2011; and has been the on-scene coordinator in numerous other national and international spill events.
Barbara has authored multiple papers on seabird rehabilitation and oil spill response. She has also nationally and internationally presented at wildlife and other conferences.
