Lucy Spelman

Lucy Spelman is a Senior Lecturer at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), specializing in the History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences. She holds a BA in Biology from Brown University (1985) and a DVM from the University of California, Davis (1990). As a board-certified zoological medicine specialist, she combines veterinary expertise with art and science advocacy. She teaches courses like Biology of Human-Animal Interactions and South Africa: Art, Science, Biodiversity, emphasizing cross-disciplinary approaches to conservation.

Her research focuses on the One-Health framework, advocating for holistic interactions between animals, humans, and ecosystems. She founded Creature Conserve (2015), a nonprofit merging art and science to address biodiversity loss. She has served on boards for organizations including the Wildlife Rehabilitators Association of Rhode Island and the Karanambu Trust in Guyana.

Spelman’s career spans zoo medicine, wildlife fieldwork (e.g., Rwanda’s mountain gorillas), and media consulting for National Geographic and Animal Planet. She authored National Geographic Animal Encyclopedia and co-edited Creature Needs, exploring literary responses to ecological crises. Her TEDx talk (Art Can Save a Panda, 2015) highlights art’s role in conservation outreach.