Jeannie Hayward

Jeannie is the Communications and Media Manager for the Cape Leopard Trust. She is a trained zoologist, dedicated naturalist and self-described nature nerd. She enjoys putting her broad and varied skill set to use to connect people to nature and to open people’s eyes and minds to the wonder of the natural world.

Growing up on a farm in the Karoo, Jeannie has always had an intense love for the veld and nature. During her varsity studies (MSc Zoology) at the University of Stellenbosch, she spent a lot of time in the Tankwa Karoo, Sandveld and Cederberg doing reptile surveys and research, particularly on the peculiar tail-biting armadillo lizard, known locally as the “blinkogie”.

She briefly left scientific research for a stint in the natural history filmmaking industry where she worked as content researcher on the natural history show GROEN, co-authored the coffee table book “Shoreline – Discovering South Africa’s coast”, and worked as researcher and production manager on a documentary series about South Africa’s threatened wildlife.

Jeannie joined the CLT team in March 2010 as coordinator and researcher on the newly born Boland Project, along with colleague Anita Wilkinson, and focussed on large-scale camera trap surveys, leopard collaring and telemetry, and public outreach and awareness.

In her current role, Jeannie is responsible for telling the stories of the CLT via print, online, social and broadcast media, as well as a host of other internal and external communication-related tasks. While still involved with research and conservation activities to some extent, her first priority is to ensure that the CLT’s research and educational content as well as conservation message is disseminated to a wide public audience.