Board Members & Advisors

Founder & President
Longneck Manor

Rick’s professional zoo career spans over 50 years.  He has held executive management and leadership positions at the Walt Disney Company, Houston Zoo, San Diego Zoo and Zoo Miami.  He has a B.S. from Cornell University and an M.S. in zoology from Rutgers University.  He is the founder of Longneck Manor, a conservation park in Fredericksburg, TX.  His passion is wildlife conservation, which was fueled by trips to Africa (over 50) and other continents.

Scott received a B.S. in microbiology/biochemistry from the University of Notre Dame in 1979. Graduated summa cum laude from The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1983.  Completed an internship in zoological medicine at the National Zoological Park in 1984.  Was hired as Director of Veterinary Sciences at Miami Metrozoo in 1984.  Became associate veterinarian and hospital administrator at the National Zoological Park in 1990.  In 1993 became staff veterinarian for White Oak Conservation Center.  Holds adjunct clinical faculty positions at University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine and University of Miami College of Medicine, Department of Comparative Pathology.  Became a Diplomate of the American College of Zoological Medicine in 1991.  Is past president of the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians and of the American College of Zoological Medicine and past chair of the Wildlife Scientific Advisory Board for the Morris Animal Foundation.  Is also a member of the International Rhino Foundation Advisory Board, the Sumatran Rhino Husbandry and Propagation Expert Advisory Board, the scientific advisory board for the Cheetah Conservation Fund, the scientific advisory board for the International Wildlife Institute, the board of directors of Wildlife Conservation Global and served as veterinary advisor for the okapi, cheetah, and Asian greater one-horned rhinoceros Species Survival Plans (SSPs). a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

John Heminway is a writer and filmmaker. Educated in New York, Switzerland, Massachusetts and at Princeton University, his work has focused on nature, science, history, biography, the American West, and Africa. Heminway’s filmmaking career at ABC Sports, Anglia Television, Discovery, PBS (WNET/Thirteen and WGBH), the Walt Disney Company and National Geographic Television, spans five decades and many hundreds of films. For PBS, he helped produce, write and direct “The Brain,” “The Mind” and the “Evolution” series, as well as an episode for the Nature series. Over four years he produced and hosted the popular PBS series, “Travels.” His lifetime awards include two Emmys, two Peabody’s and a DuPont Columbia Journalism award. For National Geographic, Heminway wrote, directed and co-produced “Bones of Turkana,” that aired on PBS. His “Battle For The Elephants,” produced with Katie Carpenter and J.J. Kelley in 2013, won the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival’s Best Conservation Film, as well as Science Media’s “Best Environmental and Conservation Sciences Program.”

As sequel to “Battle For The Elephants,” in 2015 Heminway initiated and helped produce, direct and write “Warlords of Ivory” which re-launched National Geographic Channel’s Explorer Series. It was nominated for an Emmy and won the New York WILD Film Festival’s best conservation film of the year.

Heminway has served on boards and advisory councils of the African Wildlife Foundation (Chairman for nine years), Trout Unlimited, American Prairie Reserve, Tusk, Elephant Family and Greater Yellowstone Coalition. For four years he was chairman of WildlifeDirect. Today he sits on the boards of the Wildlife Conservation Global/Okapi Conservation Project and Ngaren, Richard Leakey’s futuristic museum overlooking the Great Rift Valley, to showcase humanity’s common ancestry in Africa.

Heminway has written six books, his most recent, In Full Flight: A Story of Africa and Atonement, telling the story of Anne Spoerry who, as an adventurous flying doctor, famously dedicated 40 years of her life caring for East Africa’s neediest.

Jason has worked in zoo administration for over 25 years.  He started his career in Florida, interning at both Zoo Miami and Disney’s Animal Kingdom while completing his education at Florida International University.  He worked as a curator and later deputy director of the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend, Indiana and later as senior administrator at the Los Angeles Zoo-directing development, marketing, public relations and events.   Jason served as Executive Director of the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson, Arizona from 2013 until 2017 where he co-chaired a task force to transition the zoo’s governance from a municipally operated zoo to private-non profit institution.  Jacobs also led the design and funding for several projects including a zoo veterinary hospital in partnership with the University of Arizona. In late 2017, Jacobs was recruited by the board of the Sacramento Zoo where he serves as Executive Director. Jacobs was written articles on zoos and animals for the L.A. Times and Miami Herald and was a contributing author to the University of Chicago’s college textbook on Zookeeping.  He also assisted Betty White, Emmy-award winning actress and Zoo Advocate with writing and promoting her book, “Betty and Friends, my life at the Zoo” a New York Times Best-seller. Jacobs proudly serves as a board member of Wildlife Conservation Global/Okapi Conservation Project as the species symbolizes the collaborative work of the staff, trustees and docents of Sacramento Zoo and the community’s passion for this unique and beautiful animal.

For 6 years, John was the resident curator for the New York Zoological Society’s Rare Animal Survival Center on St. Catherine’s Island, Georgia.  In 1982, he became White Oak Plantation’s first director of conservation. For 30 years John led the development of White Oak Conservation Center into a base of conservation efforts for threatened and endangered species that are part of breeding, research, training and re-introduction programs involving biologists, researchers and students from around the world.  John is presently leading the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens in developing a strategic conservation program that will help advance their current partnerships and forge new alliances for the benefit of wildlife and wild places. 

John’s holistic approach to wildlife conservation is espoused by his involvement in field conservation programs around the world.  He is president and founder of the Okapi Conservation Project in the rainforest of the Democratic Republic of Congo which since 1987 works to protect the wild population of okapi through the support of wildlife rangers and assisting local communities to become better stewards of their natural resources.   John Lukas is a founding member and the president of the International Rhino Foundation; he is also a founding member and vice-president of the Wildlife Conservation Network, serves on the Advisory Board of the Anna Mertz Rhino Trust and is an advisor to the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center which is rehabilitating orphaned endangered Grauer’s gorillas in DR Congo. He is chairman of the board of the South East Zoo Alliance for Research and Conservation (SEZARC). 

La Palestra Holistic Health Center was created by president and program director, Pat Manocchia. The core staff consists of an elite group of practitioners in a variety of disciplines.  In addition to a hand-picked group of exercise specialists and physiologists, the staff is comprised of physicians and professionals in the fields of internal medicine, orthopedics, nutrition, psychology, clinical social work, physical therapy, chiropractic care, cardiology, acupuncture, and massage therapy.  Staff is affiliated with Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center, The Hospital for Special Surgery, Beth Israel Hospital, and The New School.  All staff members are integral in the development and application of all health maintenance programming and are available to our clients on an ongoing basis. We believe that dialogue is a crucial factor in the success of our programs, and we encourage it between all of our staff. LA PALESTRA has grown into several facilities and has diversified in both scope and programming into a full-service design and management company as well.