I've been working in conservation for around a decade, largely in southern Africa. I completed my Ph.D. on African vultures in Botswana, where I've been living for the last 10 years, alongside working with Botswana-based NGO, Raptors Botswana, which conducts applied research on raptors, mainly vultures, and focuses on local community education and empowerment. Vultures are cool :) 

Now I move on to a new chapter, just having started a position with international NGO - Panthera, as the project manager for a southern African leopard project, very different - yikes! I completed the PMWC course in December 2020, which was great, and has really benefited me in so many ways! Now, I'm really looking forward to continuing my learning with the SDWC course and to applying it all to my new job and to my continued affiliated work with Raptors Botswana!

The main things that I would like to get out of this course are:

1) Knowledge of the principles and processes of strategy design so that I can apply these to create a strategy for the relatively new project that I've just started coordinating. This is a key component of my position.

2) To more generally expand upon my professional capabilities and knowledge and to work towards more structured thought processes and work methods.

3) To have fun learning, networking, and gaining inspiration from other like-minded conservationists!