A conservation-based program administrator at Colorado State University with a background in international development, leadership education, and sustainability.

My passion is to help conservationists maintain their resiliency and mental and emotional health throughout their incredibly important work. My background includes animal husbandry in the USA and Namibia, as well as a MSc in Conservation Science from Imperial College London that included research in Mauritius. I am currently pursuing a Master in Counseling at Arizona State University as a therapist-in-training, and researching how trauma and social support affect conservationists. If you would like to share your experiences, please visit ConservationTrauma.com to take the 5-minute survey!

As a conservation biologist, some days you'll find me out in the field mist-netting owls for population studies, and on others, you'll find me scooping up whale scat (poop) for hormonal studies. I have a breadth of wide-ranging conservation experience, and I'm passionate about preserving natural resources.  

I am young professional who has just recently entered the conservation space. I am currently a Grants and Fundraising fellow for a newly-founded Kenyan NGO - the El Koony Center. I am working to hep my organization with fundraising and grant applications in the conservation space, with a focus on elephant conservation and climate-resilient agriculture. 

Jim Barborak is Senior Adviser of the Center for Protected Area Management at Colorado State University, an outreach arm of the Warner College of Natural Resources at CSU. His B.S. and M.S. in natural resources are from Ohio State University, and he took additional coursework mid-career at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. His specialties include protected areas and corridor planning and management; wildlife management; conservation finance, policy and governance; capacity building; and ecotourism. He began his career working for county government in his native Ohio, and then joined the US Peace Corps as a Volunteer and was assigned to work with the Honduran Wildlife Department. That began an international career now spanning more than 40 years. He has worked for US, Costa Rican and Honduran government conservation agencies, as a consultant to several UN organizations including UNESCO, the UN Development Program and FAO, as a private consultant, and for universities. He has worked in nearly 30 countries, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean, but also in Africa and Asia. He is an active member of the World Commission on Protected Areas and serves on several of its specialist groups, including those on Tourism, Conservation Finance, Capacity Building, and Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities and Equity. He is a native English speaker, fluent in Spanish, and speaks conversational Portuguese. Throughout his career, Jim has worked on efforts to plan and develop increased opportunities for public enjoyment of protected areas, through tourism, recreation, and environmental education programs. At the same time, he has been actively involved in efforts to increase the stream of benefits to local communities and indigenous populations living in and around protected areas, through their direct involvement in tourism and through other mechanisms to create employment and improve livelihoods in conservation units, the buffer zones that ring them, and the corridors that connect them.

Emily Duwan is the Program Officer for the Marine Conservation Action Fund at the New England Aquarium (NEAq) where she provides operational, strategic and communications support to deliver on MCAF’s global conservation mission. Emily has her Master’s in Marine Science from Northeastern University. She previously served as an NEAq program educator from 2017-2019 working in the Aquarium’s community outreach programs. Most recently, Emily worked for Northeastern University in both outreach and administrative roles. She is also the president-elect of the board of Massachusetts Marine Educators and serves on the board of Women Working for Oceans (W2O) with a focus on their environmental justice work. 

Andrea is the Program Director for the Wildfire XPRIZE. XPRIZE leverages the power of competition to catalyze innovation and accelerate a more hopeful future by incentivizing radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity.  Prior to joining XPRIZE, Andrea served an 11 month detail as the Interim Director of Smithsonian's Office of Academic Appointments and Internships. She led a team of nine dedicated team members who were responsible for managing internships, fellowship, and research associate appointments for 3000+ students, researchers, and early- to mid-career professionals.  In 2019, Andrea joined the Smithsonian as the Director of Program Development for the Smithsonian Institution’s Conservation Commons, an action network that applies the Smithsonian's cultural and scientific expertise to achieve outcomes truly consequential to sustaining Earth’s biodiversity and ecosystems. In this role, she wore three hats -- fundraising, partnerships, and programming for Earth Optimism and the Conservation Commons. Andrea joined Smithsonian after nearly two decades at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). At WWF she served as the Director of the Russell E. Train Education for Nature Program and contributed to the development of 2000+ conservation leaders across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. During her tenure, she led a $5-million program to build capacity for protected area management in the Andes-Amazon; developed a multi-year reforestation and restoration program; launched several fellowships programs in countries undergoing dramatic social, political and economic change; and partnered with SAS, a leading data analytics company, on a project to crowd-source data on global conservation learning opportunities. She co-founded the Conservation Leadership Community of Practice and was part of the planning committee for the 2019 Conservation for Capacity Building Conference in London, UK. Prior to joining WWF, Andrea had a brief but memorable stint managing the Sarapiqui Conservation Learning Center in Chilamate, Costa Rica, an experience that contributed to her passion for improving outcomes for people and nature. She has also served as an international student advisor at American University providing visa and cultural advising to thousands of international students. She taught English in Germany and Costa Rica. She also worked on the highly successful 1994 US PCS Broadband Action, the first ever spectrum auction. Andrea brings more than 20 years of experience in international education and exchange, conservation capacity development, and cross-cultural communications. She is fluent in Spanish. She holds a master’s degree in international communication from American University, Washington, DC and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Dayton, Dayton, OH.

I have long been an organizer, board member, volunteer or participant in numerous local pro-environmental non-profits working in nearly all aspects of environmental sustainability--wildlife, ecosystems & native plants, energy, transportation, housing and more.  I am seeking a professional role.