ABOUT ALI O'CONNOR A Native of Omaha, Nebraska, Ali worked for 20 years with her brother managing his insurance agency. When not working her fulltime job, Ali spent her ‘spare’ hours with animals! Starting as a docent for the world renowned ‘Henry Doorly Zoo’, she quickly shifted over to the position of Keepers Assistant as a volunteer just to be working with animals. When the opportunity came about later to join the Raptor Recovery Center of Nebraska, she jumped at the chance. It was here that Ali learned the life of an ‘on-call’ rehabilitator for raptors such as owls, falcons, hawks and eagles as well as to serve on their board and write for their newsletter. This experience helped Ali realize the need for public awareness to grow with regard to the importance these raptors play in our environment. She then founded the Omaha Raptor Team initially in conjunction with the Omaha Audubon Society. Ali’s organization quickly grew to where they were conducting 180-200 programs annually in Nebraska and Iowa with their non-releasable raptors. Additional good fortune came when Jim Fowler and Peter Gros of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom had decided to start working with Ali’s organization for their visits to the Midwest.