Valeriia van der Westhuizen
Media and Women Empowerment, Transfrontier Africa NPC
- Member directory
- South Africa
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 want to find new ways to have a positive impact on the environment and communities around the world. How I do this is pretty open; I have wide-ranging interests (including the arts and spending time outside) and am willing to adapt to changing circumstances.
Although I've stepped back from being a community advocate for the WildHub community, I'm still happy to answer questions about the platform and will do what I can to help connect people.
Hi there, I'm Bex, a freelance content marketer soon to finish my Master's in Conservation. I have a wealth of knowledge and experience in marketing, but hope to transfer over to project management and development in a conservation context. I'm currently working on a project around UK biodiversity renewal, volunteering for Cornwall Wildlife Trust, and working for a few charities on their communications pro bono. Great to be a part of the WH community.
I am a solutionist on a lifelong quest for more effective and impactful ways to address nature, climate, and social justice challenges. I set up Dialogue Matters in 2000 to facilitate better and fairer decisions that help people and nature flourish. I do this by delivering effective and ethical Stakeholder Dialogue, process design and facilitation in environmental contexts.
Chloe Hatton
Officer 2, People and Places team SE, Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru/Natural Resources Wales
- Currently working on the SE Area Statement for NRW
- Marine biology graduate (first class degree, University of Exeter, 2016-19)
- Expertise in stakeholder engagement and facilitation skills (previous role at Dialogue Matters Ltd.)
- Qualified in Strategy Development for Wildlife Conservation (WildTeam course, 2020)
Hello! I'm Léa and I'm a WildLearning Specialist with WildTeam UK. I help create, design and deliver training courses. I love getting to know all the participants and learning from them :)
Previously, I was working with BirdLife International on forest governance issues and in my previous life I worked in the development sector in the United States. Education-wise, I have studied economic development, international relations as well as tropical forestry in the past.
Hope to catch you in a WildHub social!
I work for WildTeam UK, helping to deliver training workshops, write conservation best practice manuals and share them as widely as possible. Previously a Writing Fellow working with various conservation organisations across India. Background in research, particularly behavioural ecology. Bird nerd.
I'm a biodiversity consultant working mainly in the corporate space. I work with large companies to help them figure out their nature-related impacts, dependancies, risks and opportunities, then use this information to create biodiversity strategies.
I help run a UK charity that builds the capacity of conservationists to plan, implement, monitor, and report on their work. I also have a fair bit of experience in tiger and sea turtle conservation.