People You Should Know: Annie Bradfield, Executive Director, Blue Ridge Wildlife Center
Annie Bradfield gets to spend her days doing what most 7-8-10 year olds think is the perfect job and what many adults still think would be the perfect job – working with wild animals.
Annie is the Executive Director of the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center (BRWC).
BRWC is a full-service, wildlife teaching hospital that cares for injured, sick, or orphaned native wildlife. It is one of only three such hospitals in Virginia and the only one in Northern Virginia.
The Center has 14 full time employees including two veterinarians and about 30 year-round volunteers.
The Center is guided by the One Health principals of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). One Health is an approach that recognizes that the health of people is closely connected to the health of animals and the shared environment. One Health is not new, but it has become more important in recent years. One Health is gaining recognition in the United States and globally as an effective way to fight health issues at the human-animal-environment interface, including zoonotic diseases which are diseases that can spread between animals and people.
At BRWC everyone works to care for native wildlife by integrating veterinary medicine, rehabilitation, education, and research.
The Center provides care for all native animals including fox, bob cats, birds, possums, raccoons, skunks, and all others native to our area. However, currently the Center is legally prohibited from providing care for deer to help prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease. While they do provide care for bear cubs, adult bear are transported to a facility near Waynesboro.
The Center began in 2000 with a mission to assist native wildlife through a telephone hotline that offered the public advice to help wildlife that were sick, injured or orphaned. Five years later the Center opened its wildlife rehabilitation center in an 800 square foot cottage on the Burwell-van Lennep Foundation (BVLF) property. In the summer of 2016, the Center moved out of the cottage into a new 8,700 square foot hospital facility, also located on the BVLF property.
The Center’s mission includes educating children and adults about the importance of protecting wildlife and their habitat and other related environmental topics. In addition, the Center collects and shares scientific data about local wildlife diseases, environmental toxins, and other threats to native wildlife and the environment.
Annie is a self-proclaimed “Army Brat” who grew up in many places. She spent her teenage years in Leesburg and attended Shenandoah University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and History. After graduation she worked at Shenandoah University beginning her career in nonprofit development and management. She also worked at the American Bird Conservancy (ABC). ABC is a non-profit membership organization with the mission of conserving wild birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. It is headquartered in the Plains, Virginia.
Annie joined Blue Ridge Wildlife Center in September 2020 as its Executive Director. She lives in Winchester with her husband and four children.
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