Kristen Lukas conducted her graduate work in experimental psychology with a focus in animal behavior at Georgia Institute of Technology and Zoo Atlanta.  Her research interests include environmental impacts on behavior, animal health and welfare, and conservation psychology.  Before arriving at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in 2002, she was the first curator of primates at Lincoln Park Zoo where she conducted research in primate behavior and designed a new facility for gorillas and chimpanzees. As director of conservation and science at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Dr. Lukas manages a large and diverse research and conservation program that includes working with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Rwanda to train students from the University of Rwanda in conservation science.  She joined the Fossey Fund Board of Directors in 2016, served as Board Chair from 2023-2025, and currently serves as Chair of the Board's Science & Education Committee.

Over the past 30 years, Dr. Lukas has authored more than 75 research papers in peer-reviewed journals and delivered more than 150 presentations at professional conferences.  She is an adjunct professor in biology at Case Western Reserve University and currently advises students conducting research in biology at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the University of Rwanda.  She is a member of the Africa Section of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Species Survival Commission’s Primate Specialist Group.  Within the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, she currently serves as Chair of the Gorilla Species Survival Plan® and is Treasurer of the AZA’s Saving Animals from Extinction (SAFE) Gorilla Program, which aims to significantly increase on-the-ground protection for Cross River Gorillas and Grauer’s gorillas over the next five years.  She was recognized by Crain’s Cleveland Business as a 2019 Cleveland’s Women of Note, an award that celebrates inspiring women whose dedication and achievements enrich Northeast Ohio, its institutions, and its people.

I serve as the veterinary epidemiologist at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and am an associate professor at the Ohio State University in the Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine. This dual role provides me with opportunities to teach graduate and veterinary students in the areas of conservation medicine and wildlife health, as well as investigate wildlife health issues in populations in human care or in the wild. My research focuses on wildlife health and the interface of wildlife, humans, and the environment. The diversity of the questions I seek to answer provides many opportunities for collaboration. Whether it is trying to understand the role of diet in heart disease in gorillas or how the frequency and meal size affect health parameters of cheetah, the focus of my questions regarding zoo-housed wildlife centers on understanding and improving wildlife health. The same focus applies to free-ranging wildlife, when asking questions ranging from the cause of skin disease seen in wild giraffe to environmental influences leading to increased antimicrobial resistance in free-ranging white-tailed deer in Northeast Ohio. The answers often require knowledge outside of my expertise. An exciting aspect of my work is that it provides me the opportunity to collaborate to answer questions that will advance our understanding of the human-wildlife interface and improve wildlife health.  

My primary research interests include vertebrate reproductive physiology and endocrinology as well as physiological and behavioral indicators of welfare in zoo-housed animals. Specifically, I prioritize investigations into the influence of nutrition on reproductive health and the sustainability of zoo-housed populations. I use an applied approach, focusing on increasing our understanding of little-known species reproductive physiology and associated environmental factors that may be contributing to overall animal welfare. My work then strives to develop management protocols that will maximize reproductive potential and health. While I have extensive experience with reproductive physiology of various carnivore species, I have also spent significant time researching the marsupial species Matschie’s tree kangaroos. Within the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), I serve as a member of the Management Group for the Matschie’s Tree Kangaroo Species Survival Plan, as well as their Endocrinology and Reproduction Advisor. I am also the lead of the Research Working Group for Saving Animals from Extinction (SAFE) Tree Kangaroos of Papua New Guinea and on the Steering Committee for AZA’s Reproductive Endocrinology Scientific Advisory Group.

My research interests fall under two broad categories: 1) feeding behavior, nutritional ecology, and energetics, and 2) functional morphology and locomotor kinematics. As a Research Curator at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, much of my research focuses on improving the health and wellbeing of zoo-housed individuals by promoting naturalistic behaviors and by adjusting zoo diets to better match the nutritional content of diets consumed by free-ranging conspecifics as well as the caloric content of zoo diets to physiological requirements. As part of the BioScience Alliance, I teach the Animal Behavior Lab course at CWRU and routinely advise undergraduate capstone students on projects related to animal behavior. Within the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), I serve as the Research Advisor for the New World Primate Taxon Advisory Group and the Vice Program Leader for the Saving Animals from Extinction (SAFE) Colobus Monkey program.