Onsite Team
Wild Sun Founder and Director, Jeremy Levine
Executive Director – Jeremy Adam Levine
Jeremy moved to Costa Rica in 2007, opening a Spanish, yoga, surf, and fire dancing school. Because of the area’s need for an animal rescue center and his love for the local wildlife, he decided to start Wild Sun. Coupling volunteering with his program allows travelers to learn and give back while experiencing one of the world’s most beautiful and biodiverse areas.
Jeremy is certified in wildlife rehabilitation and pain and wound management from the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council. He has an MBA from USC Marshall and a dual BA in Television, Radio and Film and Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises from Syracuse University. He is dedicated to helping local wildlife and educating all about the importance of our ecosystems and maintaining balance.
Rescue Center Director, Roger Valls Martinez
Rescue Center Director – Roger Valls Martinez
Roger has dedicated his professional career to animal welfare and wildlife conservation, specializing in the care and rehabilitation of wild fauna for over ten years. He graduated from Polytechnic University of Catalonia in 2017 with a degree in Biological Systems Engineering. Roger worked as head of the animal department at two different zoological institutions (Oasis Wildlife Fuerteventura and Butterfly Park Empuriabrava) and founded and managed Avetropic (a parrot sanctuary) in Spain for three years.
Dr. Ivanna Gordienko
Resident Veterinarian & Veterinarian Assessor – Ivanna Gordienko, DVM
Dr. Gordienko is a passionate wildlife veterinarian and surgeon dedicated to the well-being of animals in their natural habitats. Ivanna's journey in veterinary medicine began in Costa Rica, where she graduated from vet school in 2018. In 2019, she trained at Universidad Complutense in Spain with a specialty in wild and exotic animals. Since returning to Costa Rica, Ivanna has been actively involved in rescue centers and conservation efforts, applying her skills and knowledge to protect and rehabilitate wildlife.
Project Director, Noelia Sánchez Sánchez
Project Director – Noelia Sánchez Sánchez
Noelia has experience as a community manager and in online marketing, as well as in the care of exotic wildlife. She graduated in Audiovisual Media from UPC (Spain) and has nearly 12 years of experience working with various animal species in different zoological institutions. She has extensive experience in online content creation, marketing, and social media management. Additionally, she co-founded Avetropic, a sanctuary specializing in parrots, with Roger in Spain.
Programs Manager, Emily Cavill
Programs Manager – Emily Cavill
Emily is committed to protecting wildlife through research. She has worked on conservation projects around the world, from tracking iguanas through mangroves to better understand their behaviour and ecology to caring for primates rescued from the illegal wildlife trade. Passionate about bridging scientific research and practical conservation action through her PhD, she published research on the use of genetics in wildlife management. She brings expertise in project management, training and mentoring early-career scientists, and fostering cross-disciplinary collaborations to Wild Sun, to support the center’s impactful programs and develop research that will benefit the local wildlife and the animals in our care.
Local Team
Chief Biologist - Vernun Arias Vega
Vernun has over 20 years of experience working with wildlife in Costa Rica. His focus is on wildlife management and environmental sustainability. He has worked extensively with reintroduction as a tool for wildlife conservation. To date Vernun has successfully bred and released 160 scarlet macaws which are actively breeding in the wild, bringing our area a current population of over 230 birds! Vernun is also on the board of directors of the Association for the Biological Corridor of the Nicoya Peninsula.
Vet Professor -- Dr. Thomas deMaar
Dr. deMaar has been a wildlife and zoo veterinarian for 30 years embracing the practice of ecosystem health across multiple species. During his career he worked with several zoos in the United States; operated a wildlife conservation medicine practice in Kenya for 8 years; cared for domestic livestock in Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan, Uganda, and the USA; consulted for federal and state wildlife agencies; taught at Tufts University, the University of Nairobi, and the University of Texas; and mentored students from numerous countries ranging from high school to graduate school. Along the way Dr. deMaar has rehabilitated thousands of mammals, birds, and reptiles in many settings. He is currently the attending veterinarian for Sea Turtle Inc. on South Padre Island, Texas.
Consultants and Contributors
Veterinary Educator - Dr. Galina Bershteyn
Dr. Galina Bershteyn received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 2009 from the Ontario Veterinary College in Canada after an 11-year career as a Registered Veterinary Technician. She continued on to Chi Institute of Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM) in Florida to become a Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist (CVA) and Certified Veterinary Food Therapist (CVFT) in 2012. She obtained the AVMA Certificate of Wellness as well as the Train-the-Trainer program and is currently an AVMA Veterinary Wellbeing Educator and facilitator.
Since the 1990’s, Dr. Galina has accumulated years of experience in multiple roles and types of practice. First as a veterinary technician and then a locum/relief veterinarian at companion animal, equine, emergency and exotic practices in Canada, the US and the UK, before opening a holistic integrative practice in London Ontario focusing on acupuncture, food therapy, aromatherapy, and preventive medicine.
Along with years of clinical experience in different roles and branches of veterinary practice, she has a unique practical approach to medicine and focuses on holistic principles and well-being in practice. She is an avid scuba diver and PADI Scuba Instructor with Iguana Divers and their nonprofit Mantas of Costa Rica, singer/songwriter, artist, and spiritual world traveler.
Currently, she lives full time in Costa Rica with her husband, 3 dogs, 2 cats and continues to practice acupuncture, food therapy and natural medicine with domestic species and local wildlife at Wild Sun Rescue Center. In collaboration with Wild Sun, she offers RACE-approved continuing education wellbeing retreats to veterinary professionals and presentations and workshops to the externship and internship vet students at Wild Sun through puravidavetwellness.com.
Veterinary Advisor & AVMA Externship Supervisor - E. Marie Rush, DVM, DACZM
After receiving her DVM from Auburn University, Marie continued her pursuit of a career in wildlife conservation medicine with a rotating medicine and surgery internship at the Animal Medical Center in New York City followed with a residency in clinical zoo and wildlife medicine and surgery at the Wildlife Conservation Society. Following this, she served at the Birmingham Zoo as the Director of Veterinary Services and Curator of Ectotherms.
In 2007, Marie began teaching zoo, wildlife and exotic animal medicine as Assistant Professor at Auburn University. From 2009 to 2018 Marie served as an Associate Professor in pathobiology and as Coordinator of Wildlife Research, also teaching zoo & exotic animal medicine & disease at St. George’s University’s School of Veterinary Medicine. She was named a senior research fellow at the Winward Islands Research and Education Foundation.
Dr. Rush joined the Antech Imaging Services team in 2015, serving in telemedicine and diagnostic imaging interpretation. Marie serves as the veterinary advisor for the SSP for Chinese Alligators and worked on the project to repatriate Eastern Indigo snakes to the southeastern United States.
She continues to enjoy the opportunity to mentor others and inspire a passion for the natural world through conservation medicine, research and education.
Consultant - Halley D Buckanoff, CVT, CWR
Halley is the lead veterinary technician at the VHS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of the North Carolina Zoo. There she cares for various native wildlife species including bears, otters, squirrels, opossums and many types of local birds. She also manages over 150 volunteers and interns at the center.
Halley holds at BS in Biology from Lewis and Clark College. She has over 10 years of experience practicing medicine and husbandry as a certified vet tech for exotic, zoo and local wildlife species.
Halley has previous experience as a field biologist. She holds a permit from the United States Fish and Wildlife commission for banding with which she currently conducts post-release survival studies on common backyard birds.
In addition, Halley teaches certification courses for the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council in Basic Wildlife Rehabilitation, Pain and Wound Management, Nutrition and more.