Some people find their calling in a classroom. Danene Birtell found hers on a beach in South Africa. In 2000, Birtell was working as a penguin keeper at the Adventure Aquarium in New Jersey when the Merchant Vessel named Treasure sank off the coast of Cape Town, releasing tons of fuel oil into one of the world’s most important African Penguin breeding grounds. Wildlife responders with experience in animal husbandry from around the globe converged on the scene. Birtell got herself there. It was her first major oil spill response, and it had a profound impact on her.
“It was like a calling,” she said. “I know that sounds crazy.” At Bird Rescue, it doesn’t sound crazy at all.
That response is where Birtell first worked alongside Jay Holcomb, then IBR’s Executive Director, and BarbaraCallahan, Senior Director of Response Services. Holcomb took her under his wing, taught her waterproofing and bird grading protocols, and wrote her a letter of recommendation in the middle of a crisis. It was the kind of generosity that tells you everything about an organization, and Birtell never forgot it. The impression Callahan left on Danene was immediate: confident, competent, and composed in chaos; she was the kind of person who made you believe the situation was manageable. Their paths would continue to cross for years to come.
A year later, during the 2001 Luckenbach oil spill in San Francisco Bay, she met Michelle Bellizzi, now IBR’s Response and Training Manager. They worked side by side in yellow Tyvek suits through long days and longer nights, cleaning syringes and prepping medications long after others had gone to rest. Bellizzi remembers her as an “Energizer Bunny” who stayed after her work was done to help prepare for the next day. Birtell remembers Bellizzi offering her coffee, crisps, and a laugh when things were at their most dire. A friendship was forged that has lasted more than two decades.
Birtell is one of many veterinary and wildlife professionals who trace their path back to Bird Rescue, where hands-on response work offers access to world-class training that has launched careers across the field of Veterinary Science and Wildlife Rescue. Birtell went on to earn an Associate of Applied Science in Veterinary Technology, driven by a desire to understand not just what rehabilitators do, but why.
In the years that followed, Birtell built an accomplished career in oiled wildlife response. She spent over a decade with Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research, and most recently served as Senior Manager of Wildlife Planning for the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at the UC Davis School Weill of Veterinary Medicine. She has responded to more than 35 oiled wildlife incidents and contributed to spill response exercises, training workshops, and wildlife response planning efforts across the country and internationally. Throughout the years, she stayed connected to IBR and continued to collaborate with Callahan, Bellizzi, and the IBR team on countless responses.
When the position of Preparedness Manager opened at International Bird Rescue, someone told her it was like a love letter written just for her. She answered the call.
“She’s coming home,” Bellizzi said when she heard the news. “She’s family.”
Birtell joins Callahan and Bellizzi at a pivotal moment, bringing fresh eyes, deep expertise, and a career built onexactly the kind of crises IBR now faces every day. Response work is demanding, high-stakes, and often uncharted. The people who do it well are bound by something deeper than job titles. Birtell sees herself as a bridge between generations, absorbing the legacy that Callahan and Bellizzi built and helping carry it forward to train the next generation of responders. That kind of work requires trust, and this team has been building theirs by collaborating for more than two decades.
JD Bergeron, CEO, said, “Danene is great with people. She brings more than 20 years of response experience, a deep understanding of IBR’s work. She can walk into a room with the U.S. Coast Guard, with federal agencies, with industry, with biologists, and quickly find her footing in every conversation.”
He added, “That ability to build trust across very different worlds is rare, and it is exactly what birds in a changing world need right now.”
International Bird Rescue is proud to welcome Danene Birtell back home. The birds are lucky she took that trip to Cape Town 25 years ago.