My background is mainly in species conservation, education and capacity exchange. I researched mother-young interactions in gorillas and chimpanzees, in captivity and the wild. After that, I worked for three years in Indonesia, where I developed and implemented youth ambassador and community engagement programmes on local and regional scales. I co-founded WildHub, a community of nature conservation professionals, in 2020 and work as their Community Lead. I am furthermore on the Advisory Board of the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) at the University of Kent where I obtained my PhD on capacity development for conservation in 2022.
I am a marine biology graduate with an MSc in conservation from Plymouth Uni. I use to be the assistant community manager of WildHub and. have a passion for science communication and bringing people together. 🦇 In my spare time I have a blog as well as a Redbubble shop where I sell my artwork. Check it out under my website link :) 🦇 Other interests include the use of technology (specifically cameras) to study animals as well as animal husbandry and advocacy.
Ana Di Pangracio
Biodiversity Director and Deputy Director, Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN)
I am a lawyer specialized in biodiversity, environmental policy, and human rights, with more than 15 years of experience. I am passionate about contributing to the development of public policies that are fair, participatory, and grounded in human rights. I have been actively engaged in global negotiations under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) since 2010, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) since 2017, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since 2010, promoting more equitable, effective, and rights-based environmental governance. I am particularly interested in the strategic advocacy of civil society. I have led coordinated action among organizations in Argentina on a wide range of conservation issues and have been repeatedly elected by my peers from NGOs to represent the sector in institutional spaces, fostering collaborative and results-oriented work. Throughout my career, I have worked across multiple sectors -non-profit organizations, government institutions, global networks, and academia- driven by a strong belief in the power of alliances, dialogue, and cooperation to strengthen environmental justice and respond collectively to today’s socio-ecological challenges. I raise funds from international cooperation and philanthropic sources, and design and implement projects and campaigns on land-use planning, wetlands, native forests, terrestrial and marine protected and conserved areas, ecological corridors, restoration, and access to information, participation, and environmental justice. I lead multidisciplinary teams guided by strategic planning, active communication, and impact monitoring. Open to change and knowledge sharing, I am committed to integrating new technologies to enhance efficiency, collaboration, and impact. I drive digital transformation and organizational strengthening processes while promoting gender mainstreaming across institutional strategies and operations.
I started my conservation career as a researcher/author for the Arkive online natural world encyclopedia, before managing the Wildscreen Exchange project which gives 350+ organisations across the world access to free photographs and videos for their communications. From working on this project, I developed a keen interest in conservation communications and began researching impact and technique.
I also ran the public section of the Wildscreen Festival, Witness the Wild, which is an event programme that includes a travelling bicycle-powered wildlife film cinema, the world's largest recycled and recyclable photography exhibition, and a nature-themed street art gallery. Since then, I have been running my own conservation communications business, Song and Dance Communications, but split my time 50/50 between this and field work, which mostly centres around ecosystem restoration and short-term contracts in the ecotourism industry. I also produce a seldom updated blog, which I hope to spend more time on at some point in the not-too-distant future!
I work for Conservation Nation we are a new non-profit that relaunched in late 2021 after a long, prior history of being Friends of the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
I head up the marketing and communications along with running the grants program. Our focus is helping to make the conservation field accessible to a broader group of people and amplify those voices through our grants, education and outreach programs. My background is in program management, marketing and communications but my passion has always been in conservation and I've had the opportunity to volunteer for several conservation organizations. My two parallel paths have intersected with my role at Conservation Nation.