Caitlin O'Connell

Dr. Caitlin O'Connell is an Instructor in the Department of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery at Harvard Medical School, an Affiliate at Harvard Center for the Environment and Stanford University's Center for Conservation Biology, and a world renowned expert on elephants and vibrotactile sensitivity. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed nonfiction science memoir, The Elephant's Secret Sense (2007, Simon & Schuster), which highlights a novel form of elephant communication as well as their conservation plight. Her narrative nonfiction photo book An Elephant's Life (2011, Lyons Press) uses a graphic novel approach to revealing subtle and intimate aspects of elephant society. Her co-authored nonfiction children's book, The Elephant Scientist (2011, Houghton Mifflin Books for Young Readers) won five awards, including the Robert F. Sibert Honor and Horn Book Honor for 2012. A Baby Elephant In The Wild (2014, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers) is a Junior Library Guild Select and winner of the 2015 NSTA award for Outstanding Science Trade Book for students K-12. Elephant Don: The Politics Of A Pachyderm Posse (2015, University of Chicago Press), brings to light the hidden world of male elephant society. Her debut novel, Ivory Ghosts (2015, Random House), set in Namibia, is a thriller about the ivory trade and was nominated for the International Thriller Writer's Thriller Award for Best Ebook Original Novel. The sequel, WHITE GOLD (2017, Random House), is set in China. Bridge To The Wild (2016, Houghton Mifflin Books for Children) invites young readers on an intimate journey into the lives of animals to understand why we should care about keeping them in this world. She partnered with Kymera Press to convert Ivory Ghosts into a comic series, four are currently available through Kymera Press. Wild Rituals came out January 2021 (Chronicle PRISM),a New York Times Notable Book, showing how similar our rituals are to other social animals and why they are so important in our lives. O'Connell is the co-founder and CEO of the nonprofit organization, Utopia Scientific (www.utopiascientific.org), dedicated to research and science education and elephant conservation. She is also co-director of Triple Helix Productions, with a mandate to develop more accurate science content for the media. She has taught Science Writing for Stanford University and The New York Times Knowledge Network. Visit her author website at www.caitlinoconnell.com. Visit her nonprofit website at www.utopiascientific.org her social media handle is elephant_skinny (instagram) and @ElephantSkinny (twitter) Also visit her elephant blog: http://elephantskinny.tumblr.com/ And be sure to watch ELEPHANT KING, an award-winning documentary about her research on CBS and the Smithsonian Channel: http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/show/3373743/elephant-king