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The names of some founders listed in the original articles of incorporation include Jim Barbieri

IWRC Conferences IWRC began annual Conferences in 1977. For the first eight years, they were held in the San Francisco Bay area. Click the pull-down menu for a list of locations since then. IWRC Conferences 1985 - San Mateo, CA, USA 1986 - Burlingame, CA, USA 1987 - Burlingame, CA, USA 1988 - Seattle, WA, USA 1989 - Austin, TX, USA 1990 - Washington, DC, USA 1991 - Vancouver, BC, CA 1992 - Naples, FL, USA 1993 - Lake Tahoe, NE, USA 1994 - San Diego, CA, USA 1995 - Virginia Beach, VA, USA 1996 - Niagara Falls, NY, USA 1997 - Concord, CA, USA 1998 - Ft. Worth, TX, USA 1999 - Tucson, AZ, USA 2000 - Montreal, QB, CA 2001 - Orlando, FL, USA 2002 - Concord, CA, USA 2003 - Chicago, Il, USA 2004 - Portland, OR, USA 2005 - Toronto, ON, CA

Alice Berkner, Gary Bogue, Dr. James Harris, Paul Maxwell, Doug Morris, Dr. Sheila Shannon and Dave Smith.

In 1983, Sandra D. Emmanuelson, DVM, developed the 1AB skills seminar and manual. The first Skills 1AB Seminar was taught in California in 1984. In the following years, requests for training came from further afield, Canadian rehabilitators joined the membership, and WRC became IWRC. The Skills 1AB manual was translated to Spanish, and trainers gave seminars in South America and Mexico.

With each subsequent board of directors, new goals were set, and met. The Journal of Wildlife Rehabilitation was launched, the first conference took place, and Special Skills seminars were developed.

With an international membership and ever-increasing alliances with agencies, conservation groups and others working in the field of wildlife care and protection, the organization and its programs expanded to meet the changing needs of a vast global community.

IWRC took full advantage of new technology and developed its first website. Now able to communicate with international members via IWRC online and email, programs outside of the Americas became possible. In January 2001, the first Skills 1AB seminar in the Eastern hemisphere was taught in Aegina, Greece. It was followed in 2002 by a seminar in Ankara, Turkey. In the new millennium, wildlife - and rehabilitation- know no borders.

Today, IWRC is the widest ranging rehabilitation organization in the world.

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