 Caroline Seitz:
"The Reptile Lady"
Founder of Reptiles AliveLLC.
Director and Lead Wildlife Educator
Crawling through swamps searching for snakes and other creatures, writing herpetological research papers, and hanging out with professional zoologists is how Caroline Seitz spent most of her childhood. Her passion for reptiles caused her to quickly become known as "The Reptile Lady" and she soon began presenting live reptile shows at nature centers, schools, and camps while in elementary school.
Before she founded Reptiles Alive! LLC, Caroline held a variety of exciting jobs: a state park ranger; a naturalist at Hidden Pond Nature Center, a field herpetologist with an animal control company, and a zoo educator working with exotic birds, monkeys, tigers, and other wild animals.
While attending George Mason University, Caroline became a licensed wildlife rehabilitator and began rescuing unwanted, abandoned, or confiscated exotic herps and injured or sick native herps. After graduating with a B.A. in Speech Communication and completing Dr. Carl Ernst's graduate course in herpetology, Caroline dedicated herself to creating a company that would provide schools, parks, and other groups with the highest quality, most exciting live animal education programs available.
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 Jennifer Houha Pennington
Lead Animal Keeper / Wildlife Educator
Growing up in New Mexico, Jennifer became fascinated with the snakes and other creepy crawlies that lived in her desert neighborhood. She pursued her childhood interest in herpetology and graduated from the University of New Mexico with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.
Before coming to Reptiles Alive!, Jennifer has had a huge amount of experience working with reptiles and other animals. She worked as keeper and educator at the International Rattlesnake Museum, home to the largest collection of rattlesnakes in the world. Then she transferred to Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay, Florida. While at Busch Gardens, she gained experience caring for a variety of animals including: crocodiles, giant snakes, and Komodo dragons. In 2002 she moved to Northern Virginia and became the curator at the Reston Zoo.
Jennifer is excited about working at Reptiles Alive! as both a keeper working with her favorite animals and an educator so she can share her love of reptiles with others. Her goal is to convert people who misunderstand reptiles into reptile lovers like herself.
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 Erik Hankin
Animal Keeper/ Wildlife Educator
Erik has loved reptiles, especially dinosaurs, for as long as he can remember. Growing up in Bethesda, Maryland, Erik pursued his interest in these ancient reptiles as well as his love for the environment at Macalester College in Minnesota, earning Bachelor of Arts degrees in Geology and Environmental Studies.
Before joining Reptiles Alive! LLC, Erik spent many years teaching and working with children. He was a tennis instructor and camp counselor for the B-CC YMCA throughout high school. While going to college in Minnesota, Erik volunteered his time at the Katherine Ordway Natural History Area as a wildlife educator, and with the Macalester College Geology Department visiting elementary school science classes to teach children about geology.
In his spare time, Erik loves to be outdoors. He enjoys hiking and reliving old memories on the baseball diamond. Erik plans on returning to school to earn a master’s degree in paleontology and hopes that while working with and observing the amazing animals at Reptiles Alive, he might better understand their extinct relatives that fascinate him so much.
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 Tony Bulmer -
Wildlife Educator
Tony Bulmer was born an animal lover. While growing up, he spent most of his time in the woods observing wildlife and learning about nature. He achieved a degree in Parks and Recreation and is now a Senior Naturalist at Ellanor C. Lawrence Park. His primary responsibility at the park is providing high quality interpretive programs for it's many visitors.
When not spending his free time with his family, Tony still likes to go into the woods to research his passion - reptiles and amphibians. Tony says, "Teaching about reptiles is one of my favorite topics and I can talk about nature for hours with anyone."
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 Jen Rafter -
Animal Keeper. Jennifer has been with Reptiles AliveLLC from nearly the beginning. She loves working with the animals and enjoys the challenge of learning how to care for so many different species. Jennifer graduated from George Mason University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and plans on pursuing a graduate degree in ichthyology and/or marine education. She successfully completed the training to be a SCUBA Dive Master and spends as much free time as she can playing beneath the waves with her favorite marine creatures.
As a Virginia Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator, Jennifer rescues many injured box turtles, snapping turtles, and other native reptiles. She rehabilitates them, and is able to release most of the animals she receives back to their home in the wild.
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 Virginia Olin
Animal Show Assistant
You might meet Caroline's aunt Virginia when she's helping out at one of our live reptile shows. Virginia works for the FDIC as an economist during the week, shoots trap and goes hiking on weekends, and sometimes works as an animal show assistant with Reptiles Alive! Her favorite animals are the Northern Pine Snakes Han & Leia, and she loves meeting and talking with all of the people that come to see our shows.
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 Dr. Anne Hiss
Veterinarian
All of the animals at Reptiles Alive! LLC get top notch care and attention by our staff, but sometimes our animals need to go the doctor, and that's when they meet Anne. She helps our animals in so many ways: prescribing medicine, performing medical tests, giving x-rays, and even preforming surgery when neccessary. Anne also helps us with our wildlife rescues - animals that are in need of more than supportive care go the vet as soon as we recieve them. We are so thankful to Anne for all the help she gives to our animals - she helps keep our reptiles alive!
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