Nathanael Stanek

Nathanael Stanek is a Conservation Scientist and Scientific Collection Curator with the Turtle Conservancy, where he has worked since 2018. He leads programs to protect California’s native Southwestern Pond Turtle and the many tiny tortoise species of Southern Africa. His conservation work combines field research, habitat protection, and population monitoring. When not spending long hours chasing chelonians through creeks, wetlands, and scrub, he curates the Conservancy’s Pritchard Collection—one of the world’s most extensive natural history collections of turtles and tortoises. Though he prefers turtles alive and thriving, he finds equal fascination in the evolutionary stories revealed through collections. Together, these experiences connect his work on living turtle populations with his interest in their evolutionary history. Nathanael holds a M.S. from Fordham University and a B.S. from the University of Missouri. His graduate research focused on genetic diversity in African forest tortoises (Kinixys erosa and K. homeana), contributing to knowledge of their evolutionary history.