Laura Owens is Technical Specialist, Partnerships & Organisational Development at FFI. Laura works closely with partner organisations to become more capable, resilient and impactful at the same time working to reduce the major risks to FFI. She also supports FFI staff to manage partnerships effectively. With an MSc in Conservation, Ecology and Planning from Pretoria University, Laura has continued to build up her experience since joining the Conservation, Capacity & Leadership team, FFI in June 2015, helping to build the capacity of early career conservationists and partner organisations so that they have the skills and knowledge to work effectively and achieve their conservation goals.

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.