User:Ncsucom436student/Sheila Anderson-Witty

Sheila Anderson-Witty MBE (3 July 1946 - present) is an English environmental scientist and writer. Her work focused primarily on seal ethnology and habitats in the British Isles. Sheila Anderson-Witty has worked with Derek Ranwell, a sand dune ecologist, studying colonies on the North Norfolk coast. She has also worked with Nigel Bonner, who lectured at the Sir John Cass College in London (which is now known as the London Metropolitan University ) in the zoology department. At the time, Nigel Bonner was the director of the Natural Environment Research Council's Seal Research Unit (later known as the Sea Mammal Research Unit), where she worked with him on seal research. She also worked as environmental advisor to Christopher Patten, the Minister for Overseas Development at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Sheila Anderson-Witty was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II for her services to science, as well as listed in her birthday honors list in 2008.

Personal Life
Sheila attended Sir John Cass College for a degree in zoology, now known as the London Metropolitan University. While Working at the Sea Mammal Research Unit, Sheila met her husband, Peter Anderson-Witty, who worked on the British Antarctic Survey as a diesel mechanic and base leader. They married after his return from Halley Bay in 1980 and together had their first son, Stuart Anderson-Witty, in 1982. Peter returned home shortly before the outbreak of the Falklands War, where he was working at the time and feeding information to British Intelligence on developments in the Falklands. In 1990, Sheila and Peter relocated to the west coast of Scotland where Sheila raised their two children, studied the local sea mammal populations, and wrote her second book, "Seals". Sheila retired in 2009, shortly after receiving her MBE.

Career
Soon after graduating with a degree in zoology from the Sir John Cass College in London, Sheila worked with Derek Ranwell, sand dune ecologist, on the North Norfolk coast studying seal colonies. Some years later, Sheila worked alongside Nigel Bonner while he was director of the Sea Mammal Research unit (then the Natural Environment Research Council's Seal Research Unit) on seal research in Cambridge. It was during this time she met her husband, Peter Witty-Anderson. For some time after the birth of their first child, Stuart, Sheila worked as environmental advisor to English politician Christopher Patten. At this time, Christopher Patten was the minister for Overseas Development at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. After the birth of their second child, Rona, Sheila and her family relocated and and Sheila studied nearby seal populations and wrote her books, "Seals" and "The Grey Seal".

In 1991 Sheila co-founded the 49 Club, a social forum for people who had worked with the Nature Conservancy and/or Nature Conservancy Council and named after the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act of 1949, which initially established the Nature Conservancy. In 1995 Sheila became head of communications for the Natural Environment Research Council, where she remained until 2007. Sheila was also vice president of the Zoological Society of London, and a member of their Zoo Advisory Committee where she assisted in advising zoos on their objectives and management. She also was a board member of the People's Trust for Endangered Species, a charity organization that works to conserve wildlife.