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qualified staff of the Wild Bird Center are here to help you enjoy
feeding birds. Stop by and say hello, and share some of your birding
stories with someone who really cares.
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Denise Kirkpatrick
Denise likes to describe herself as a corporate refugee after spending most of her career as a marketing professional in large corporations. Two of the many factors that she looked for in a change of careers were being her own boss and a lot less travel. Her background includes a BA in Psychology from Mizzou, a BS in Nuclear Medicine from Indiana University, and a Masters in Business Administration from University of Missouri. Denise opened the Wild Bird Center in early 2002 after looking for a way to combine her love of birds and nature with her educational and work background. Denise lives in Sunset Hills with her husband Chuck. Their daughter Lauren is a second year student in the Medical School at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and
their son Doug is a junior majoring in Chemistry at Saint Louis University. Denise enjoys bird watching in her rare free time and has been feeding backyard birds since she was very young. One of her favorite memories was going to the local butcher shop for some fresh suet for their Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker when she was only a small child. Even with the demands of owning her own business, Denise finds time to keep 8-12 feeders filled in her own backyard. |
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Chuck Kirkpatrick
Chuck spends some time in the store, but spends more time working on store projects not on the
sales floor.
Chuck does the accounting and the web site for the Wild Bird Center, as well as taking care of
maintenance and building projects for the store. Chuck's day job is at Saint Louis University, where he
is a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry. Chuck has a B.S. degree in chemistry from the
University of Missouri-Columbia and a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Indiana University. He teaches
freshman chemistry, inorganic chemistry, and has research projects in computational chemistry and
removal of arsenic from drinking water. Chuck enjoys taking pictures of birds in the yard. His
"prize" photo was taken several years ago when a Pileated Woodpecker visited the suet feeder on the
deck. |
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Brittany Albrecht
Brittany Albrecht is a freshman at St. Louis Community College-Meramec, and has had a strong interest in nature for some
time. In high school she was a member of the Environmental Club, and worked on development of
nature trails. Brittany's other interests include drama and art. She works at the Wild Bird Center
on weekends and after school. |
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Elizabeth Beckwith
Elizabeth Beckwith has recently joined the Wild Bird Center family, bringing a diverse range of
talents. She loves nature and has been an artist and calligrapher for over thirty years.
She served as a volunteer artist for the horticultural staff of the Japanese Garden at the
Missouri Botanical Garden. Elizabeth loves working with people, and has loads of retail
experience. Working at the Wild Bird Center allows her to indulge her love of nature while giving
her time to develop her own artwork business. |
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Dennis Crain
Dennis is retired from a career as a computer system specialist and is a great resource
at the Wild Bird Center. Besides his interest and experience in backyard feeding, Dennis
has a great deal of knowledge about his other hobby, backyard ponds. He maintains his own
successful ponds at home, with fish and water plants. Dennis also has experience breeding and
raising canaries, so he is one of our few staff members that can answer questions about
indoor birds. Stop by and talk to Dennis about any of these topics, or just general
birdfeeding. |
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Zoe Geist
A St. Louis native, Zoe Geist is a part-time employee at Wild Bird Center and she is also an
adjunct faculty at St. Louis Community College. She teaches general biology courses and an
elective course at Florissant Valley, Animal Behavior. She received her M.S. in biology and her
B.S. in Biology from Central Missouri State University. For her graduate research, she studied
habitat selection of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers in Western Missouri. Zoe's first career experience
was working as a seasonal naturalist for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, State Park
Division. She worked at Harry S. Truman Park while she was a student at CSMU, at Watkins
Mill State Parks while she lived in Kansas City, and at Babler State Park when she moved to St.
Louis in 2001. Nature programs such as spiders, night walks, bird walks and stream table
demonstrations were her favorites to present to park visitors. Zoe also worked part-time for a Wild
Bird Center store in Kansas City. Zoe took an interest in bird counts when she was a student and
she and her husband participated in the Christmas Bird Count of Knob Knoster, Missouri annually
for six years. She started participating in the North American Migration Count with her graduate
advisor when it began in 1993. Although Zoe has had many birding experiences in Missouri, she
cites her observations of the courtship rituals between male and female Scissor-tails and the
agonistic behavior among the males as the best. Zoe and her husband live in Imperial, MO with
their two dogs. They are backyard enthusiasts and spend as much time outdoors as possible. Zoe
continues to bird watch in the St. Louis area and now compiles NAMC data for St. Louis County. |
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Marty Mallett
Marty grew up in Madison, Wisconsin where she attended the University of Wisconsin - Madison and earned a BS degree in Wildlife Ecology. While at the university, she helped with research on urban crows and feral cats. Marty has worked in wildlife rehabilitation at the Vermont Raptor Center, the Dane County (Wisconsin) Humane Society, and at the World Bird Sanctuary here in St. Louis. While working at the World Bird Sanctuary, she gave live bird educational programs for all ages throughout Illinois and Missouri. She also was a naturalist at Powder Valley Nature Center for the Missouri Department of Conservation. Marty has been working for Wild Bird Center stores longer than any staff member, having started at other locations before moving here to the South County store. She is a real expert on all birds, but has an exceptional knowledge of birds of prey. Marty lives with her husband Mike and son Aaron who just turned 9, in High Ridge. |
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Tom Wren
Tom retired from AmerenUE after 37 years as a supervisor of administrative services at the Meramec power plant. Throughout his tenure he worked at all of the coal-fired plants in Missouri, most of the coal-powered plant in Illinois, and all of the hydro-electric plants in Missouri and Iowa. Tom has been feeding backyard birds for years. Tom enjoys nature, particularly on a golf course. Tom has lots of real-world bird feeding and squirrel-fighting experience to share. |
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