Meet the Team
Dan Melody
General Operations Manager
Dan is our Senior Biologist who oversees all day-to-day business operations and oversight of all flight projects from inception to completion.
Dan has a M.S. in Wildlife Biology/Ecology with a professional background in Incident Management. He’s been with Owyhee Air for 6 years and established many of the flight protocols we now use for wildlife and wildfire aerial operations and data delivery.
Chelsea Merriman
Director of Data, Analytics, and Remote Sensing
Chelsea is our director of research and development for new projects as well as one of our wildlife biologists. She’s been with OAR for 5 years and has helped establish many of our air-to-ground protocols used for remote sensing of wildlife, wildfires, and wildlands.
Chelsea has 14 years of experience in wildlife biology and research, a B.S. in environmental science and anthropology, and is working on a M.S. in Biology. Her expertise spans a wide range of topics including wildlife biology, sagebrush phytochemistry, behavioural ecology, wildlife/human interactions, and remote sensing using hyperspectral imaging, radiometry, LiDAR, and photogrammetry.
Edward Trout
Chief Data Specialist
Edward is the OAR data wiz and wildlife biologist. He manages project workflows, data aggregation, and data analysis. He assists with project coordination, project development, and ongoing research of applied remote sensing.
Edward studied at University of California Santa Barbara and Boise State University. He has a B.S. in Zoology and M.S. in Biology with five years experience in field biology and wildlife research. He joined Owyhee Air Research in May 2021. His scientific interests lie in data science, wildlife behavioral ecology, and human-wildlife coexistence management.
AJ Grieve
Director of Business Development
AJ identifies and develops new business opportunities for OAR. He’s skilled at building relationships with customers, suppliers, distributors, partners, and vendors.
AJ will be attending GIS (and other) conferences. He would love to chat with you if you attend! Email him at AGrieve@owyheeair.com
During his 10+ years of experience in sales and business development, he’s successfully built teams and sales in various spaces such as technology, SaaS, and GIS.
Deneice Anderson
Operations Office Manager
Deneice has been with OAR for over 10 years, and thank goodness because she helps keep things moving smoothly. Deneice manages our Part 135 compliance and maintaining company required FAA manuals and their revisions, assists with contract preparation, necessary insurance coverage, correspondence control, and the secure archiving of safety, sensitive, personal, and intellectual properties. She’s also responsible for developing and implementing office policy by setting up procedures and standards to guide office operations, as well as monitoring and ensuring efficiency of office work flows.
Tatiana Welch
Accounts Receivable, Onboarding and Payroll
Tatiana started as an intern working for OAR in December of 2020 before moving to full time in 2022 as our expert in accounts receivable. She’s currently working on her M.S. in Accounting at California State University Fullerton.