Jim Breheny Bronx Zoo Wife Kathleen LaMattina Is A Collections Manager

November 2020 · 6 minute read

Jim Breheny wife Kathleen LaMattina is a collections manager of special animal exhibits. Jim Breheny is a director of the Bronx Zoo.

Jim is a famous moderate, and he is originally from the United States of America. He has always been interested in and keen on all the animals in the world.

He used to have turtles and tortoises that he kept as pets when he was young. Jim graduated from Manhattan College, located in Riverdale, New York, when he completed his undergraduate degree.

After that, he was a part of the Biology Department from 1988 to 2005 for approximately seventeen years. He got his graduate degree from Fordham University in 1984.

He has previously worked on the Board of Directors for the Turtle Conservancy organization. He has been on the Advisory Board after the relationship between the Turtle Conservancy organization and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

He is a member of the Zoo Advisory Committee of the Zoological Society of London and is also a part of the International Iguana foundation.

Jim Breheny Bronx Zoo Wife Kathleen LaMattina

Jim Breheny is married to his wife Kathleen LaMattina in New York City.

Kathleen is the collection manager at the zoo and cares for animals like porcupines. She also works as the curator of Animal Encounters at the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo. She has been working in the zoo for a long time.

She interviewed with Nature of PBS organization and talked about her experience working at the zoo. The interview was done to honor Women’s History Month.

WCS and Nature collaborated and told seven stories of women working in nature and conversation, one of them being LaMattina.

The curator stated that she was one of the most fortunate people she would ever meet, and she was eternally grateful to all the people who had helped her guide her in the journey.

She taught math and science for around three years at the beginning of her career, and she later decided that he would go to graduate school before she found her way to the Wildlife Conservation Society Bronx Zoo.

His partner loved math, and she thought that she could travel during the summer breaks, so her plan to be a teacher seemed perfect.

She taught 7th and 8th-grade students and saw they were miserable on the first day of her math class.

At that time, she could not understand why they felt that as it was math, and she thought that math was wonderful. In a few months, math had become the student’s favorite subject, and the students in her class also had a math club where she was also a member.

The teacher later also taught science to the students, read materials related to nature, and even raised money to save turtles, sea otters, and manatees. They even adopted an animal from the zoo she is working with.

At that time, she realized that it was important to foster the love of nature in children and empower them so that they act on it.

She was hired at the Bronx Zoo as an intern by Annette Berkovits in the education department, who is regarded as one of the most assertive and most accomplished women at that time by WCS.

There were many curators, veterinarians, and collection managers almost forty years ago, which was not common in the zoo.

She states in the interview that she remembers all the incredible women working there at that time who were her mentors and appreciates everyone to this day.

After years, she also became one of the leading women at the established institution which she did not think she would become when she was young.

As she grew up in the 70s, she was not aware of discrimination and the limited career choices that she had in life.

She received a grant to conduct censuses of the marine mammals and birds in the affected areas of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

As she went to the location, she mentioned that even with the effect on Alaska, it was still one of the most beautiful places she had ever visited.

There are two parts of her life that she loves the most, one is teaching, and the other is animals. Both of them came together at the zoo.

Her titles while working have changed many times over the years, but her goal has always remained the same to teach people about the beauty of nature and the natural world as well as the animals who need our help.

She is active on Twitter with the username @aquilanike, with over one thousand followers and more than two thousand tweets.

Jim Breheny Family Life

The family of the former Board of Directors of the Turtle Conservancy consists of his longtime partner Kathleen LaMattina.

The couple met at the zoo where both of them work now. Both of them share the same love for animals and even get married on the grounds of the zoo.
They have been married for over 20 years.

Since both of them work at the same zoo and have a similar love and passion for animals, they have found common ground and have surpassed any problems.

On December 26, 2022, Jim tweeted a photo of himself and his partner with their dogs Finn and Norton as they took their dogs for the annual Christmas Walk.

Jim is highly private regarding his personal information and is yet to reveal the names of his mother and father.

Kathleen has revealed that one of her role models is her grandmother Jane who she states is the smartest person she knows. Her grandmother’s family was from Italy.

She is also close to her aunt who has been the torch that has given he courage and always encourages her to learn.

Her father told her when she was eight years old that she could be anything that she wanted to become. As her mother worked to get a Master’s degree.

Jim Breheny Is Director Of Bronx Zoo

Jim Breheny is the director of Bronx Zoo located in The Bronx, New York, USA.

Jim started going there when he was only 14 years old as a volunteer. He came to know how much he loved and wanted to care for these animals.

He has always been interested in animals and kept turtles and tortoises as pets when he was young.

One of his first memories at the zoo was of the Fly River turtle Freddie, which had been on exhibit since 1958 in the Reptile House.

As per Turtle Conservancy, he mentioned that he was captivated by the turtle, and something was mesmerizing about the creature.

He has a lifelong interest in and appreciation for turtles and tortoises.

He works as the director and oversees the management and exhibition of the animal collections at the Bronx Zoo, Queens Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, New York Aquarium, and Central Park Zoo.

He is active on Twitter @JimBreheny, where he has over 8k followers and more than seven thousand tweets on that platform.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7u7PRZ6WerF%2Bau3DDyKSgaKKZonqjvsShnKexXZe%2FsLrXZrGop12stqexjKSYraCcmrKvecuapJqspJ67onnIrGSaZZOkua2xwq2gqKajYrqiusCgnKtlYmR5bXiLZWNl