Hi all! I am currently Fauna & Flora Internationals (FFIs) Senior Programme Manager for Conservation Capacity and Leadership. I have a lovely broad remit, but at its heart my job is to support FFI staff and partners strengthen skills in establishing, managing and supporting FFIs conservation work. I do this in lots of ways- designing and running training events, supporting the application of new skills/learning to peoples work, setting up mentoring relationships and peer to peer learning groups, organising exchange visits, work shadowing, master classes etc. We have a big focus on knowledge management in FFI, so don't just focus on how to bring in new knowledge and learning into our organisation, but how to share and apply all the incredible knowledge and skills our 400 strong team already have I have an MSc in Environmental Technology and PhD in Anthropology from UCL where I specialised in human-environment interactions, with a stint as a Teaching Fellow in Human Ecology (maternity cover). Prior to joining FFI, I spent a number of years working in the Central African Republic to assess and improve the integration of conservation and development in the Dzanga-Sangha region, and following gorillas up and down volcanoes in Rwanda with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. Before joining FFI's Conservation Capacity team in 2013, I spent 5 years in FFI’s Africa team, co-ordinating and managing projects in Liberia, West Africa.

Working in conservation was always my dream job! It took me a while to get there but fast forward some years and I was leading conservation programmes and teams around the world. During my time in that role I realised that I was both at risk of burnout and had become a little disconnected from the day-to-day conservation impact that I was passionate about. However, I loved developing, supporting and coaching the teams I managed and decided to re-train as a coach so that I could spend more time focusing on supporting others to excel in their role and remain passionate and effective within the conservation sector. I joined WildHub to stay up-to-date with the conservation world, share my experiences and support conservation professionals however I can.

After a decade of training to be a wildlife conservationist, I founded Lonely Conservationists to help conservationists thrive by providing a platform to be heard, employment pathways and a strong community foundation. As well as running Lonely Conservationists, I teach sustainability incursions and excursions to school students in a classroom, forest and marine park environments.