YALE UNIVERSITY - Key Persons
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
Agustin is the immediate-past President of the International Forestry Students Association (IFSA). At only 27 years of age, Mr.Rosello has shown an outstanding commitment towards achieving IFSA`s mission of "A world that appreciates forest" by taking several roles at this 12.000 member NGO. He is currently organizing the Youth Engagement for the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) World Congress Stockholm 2024.
During his studies, Agustin pursued a degree in Forestry at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile with special focus on forest management, conservation and restoration. He also had the experience of studying in Madrid, Spain and Vancouver, Canada. He worked as an assistant professor of Silviculture for several terms and did internships at the Ministry of Environment of Chile and IUFRO HQ in Vienna, Austria.
In IFSA, Agustin also held other leadership positions such as Head of the International Policy Commission and Head of the Organizing Committee for the 50th International Forestry Students Symposium Chile 2022. Together with the IFSA Presidency, this experience developed his project management skills, his diplomacy skills and his leadership skills. Agustin has traveled around the world representing the voice of students and young scientists in the forest sector at different spaces and processes.
As for professional experience, Mr.Rosello worked as the Scientific and Environmental Consultant for the Assistant Director General and Regional Representative of Latin America and the Caribbean at FAO. While in this position, he developed an important understanding of how intergovernmental organizations work and how difficult it is to meet expectations from the reality of such organizations.
Alex is a first year MEM in the People, Equity, and the Environment specialization. She is particularly focused on food and agriculture, especially through the lens of environmental justice and place-based education. She is interested in using writing and storytelling to explore humans' connection to the natural world.
Before starting at YSE, Alex worked for a nonprofit in Chicago in the sustainable farming and food justice sphere, and also has experience working in charter schools, environmental education, and on farms.
Alex earned her B.A. in environmental studies with a concentration in environmental justice and a certificate in education studies from Yale College in 2020.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
- Vice - President of Corporate Sustainability at Weyerhaeuser
- Vice President, Corporate Sustainability
Ara Erickson is Vice-President of Corporate Sustainability at Weyerhaeuser, where she is accountable for the development and implementation of the company's comprehensive sus- tainability strategy, including three areas where the company is in a unique position to participate: working forests contri- bution to climate change solutions, the role of sustainable products in ensuring housing for everyone, and support for thriving rural communities. She serves as a board member for American Forests, the oldest national nonprofit conservation organization in the United States, is a founding steering com- mittee member for the Women's Forest Congress, and uses her voice to be an advocate for sustainable, working forests.
Ara is an authentic, compassionate, and driven leader, best known for building partnerships through collaboration, trans- parency and honest communication. Prior to Weyerhaeuser, she served as Director of the Green City Partnerships program with a regional conservation organization, Forterra, and as a forest-based researcher, environmental consultant and educa- tor. She received her M.S. in Forest Resources from the Univer- sity of Washington and her B.S. in Resource Management from the University of California, Berkeley.
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Program Associate
- Program Manager
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
- Chief Impact Officer
Candice has over 20 years' experience in sustainability and socio-economic development, the last 5.5 years with The New
Forests Company (NFC) in East Africa as their Chief Impact Officer. She has an undergraduate business degree with an
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
- President
- President of BOMACO Foundation
Carolina Toapanta is the President of BOMACO Foundation (Bosques, Mares y Comunidades) developing projects related to establishment of Areas of Conservation and Sustainable Use (ACUS) with local governments, biodiversity monitoring, bio-enterprises programs, and humanitarian assistance in Manabí, Santa Elena and Galápagos in Ecuador. She sees TFD as an opportunity to present practical and collaborative solutions to forest conservation and sustainable forest man- agement challenges, as well as articulate community-level perspectives. She has had a long history with conservation
at the Ecuadorian Coast: she completed her undergraduate degree in Biology; she later worked as a teaching assistant and logistics coordinator for several years at a US-based NGO helping with it ́s summer and semester courses; after several years as Projects Coordinator in Ecuador, she assumed the position of Executive Director of all operations in the country for the same foundation. Last year she funded and now runs her own initiative BOMACO Foundation. She has led conser- vation efforts on the Pacific Coast for more than 16 years, and has been instrumental in establishing large-scale conservation areas there with the development of Areas of Conservation and Sustainable Use (ACUS), Pacoche Wildlife Refuge and is working promoting the largest conservation effort for the protection of the water sources at Manabí province. Now she runs with collaboration of local actors, the biggest restoration effort (1000ha) on the Manabí province. She is helping bio-entrepreneurs at local communities to enhance sustainable production at conservation and restoration areas, specially with women. She earned her title as Biologist with emphasis on Ecology and Sustainable Development in the Latin University of Costa Rica in 2005. She obtained her Master in Environmental Conservation at the University of Wisconsin in 2015.
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Executive Director
- Member of the Steering Committee
- Team Leader
Dr. David Ganz is a seasoned team leader, a forestry and natural resource management specialist, including forest policy and governance, REDD+, biomass energy, and climate change. Dr. Ganz has over 30 years' experience managing donor funded initiatives and multi-partner development programs, including more than 16 years' working in South East Asia. Dr. Ganz has led teams of national and international experts on carbon project development, community-forestry, conflict management, forest policy and governance, climate change adaptation, and forest sector business development. Through his cross-sectoral work, he has well established working relationships with key international organizations and governments. As Chief of Party on the USAID-funded Lowering Emissions in Asia's Forests (USAID LEAF), Dr. Ganz led a policy team that supported policy reforms aimed at reducing emissions and improving forest and land management through REDD+ and jurisdictional approaches. He also led The Nature Conservancy's Forest Carbon Team and Global Fire Initiative. Dr. Ganz holds a PhD in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from the University of California, as well as a Masters of Forestry from Yale University.
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Executive Secretary
- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
- Co - Lead )
- Sustainable Fiber and Conservation Manager
With over 35 years of experience in the forestry sector, plus post-graduate degrees in business administration, Francisco brings a wealth of knowledge on forests and tree plantations to TFD's steering committee. In his current position of Sustaianable Fiber & Conservation Manager, he is responsible for the maintenance of the different certifications held by the forest and industries related to CMPC. He also represents the company in the work they share with different NGOs in Chile and abroad. Outside of his professional life, he has a passion for language and travel. Francisco has contributed to numerous scientific publications. He is especially interested in the conservation and propagation of endangered and unique tree species.
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- Executive Director
- Member of the Steering Committee
- Executive Director of the Forest School at the Yale School
- Executive Director of the Forests Dialogue
Gary is the Executive Director of The Forest School at the Yale School of the Environment. The Forest School is a "School within a School" focused on connecting people, forests, and forestry for a sustainable future. He is also Executive Director of The Forests Dialogue (TFD), an organization based at Yale University in New Haven, CT, USA. TFD was created in 2000 to provide global forest leaders with a neutral, multi-stakeholder dialogue (MSD) platform and process focused on developing mutual trust and a shared understanding while working towards collaborative solutions to the challenges in achieving sustainable forest management and forest conservation around the world.
Gary is the Executive Director of The Forests Dialogue (TFD), an organization based at Yale University in New Haven, CT, USA. TFD was created in 1999 to provide global and regional leaders in the forest sector with a neutral, multi-stakeholder dialogue (MSD) platform and process focused on developing mutual trust and a shared understanding while working towards collaborative solutions to the challenges in achieving sustainable forest management and forest conservation around the world. Gary is the first Executive Director of TFD's Secretariat, since bringing it to Yale in 2000. Gary works with a diverse 25 person strong, international Steering Committee to set priority on key forest related issues and develop multi-stakeholder dialogue-based initiatives to address those issues. He oversees a small, Yale based staff.
Gary has been working on forest related issues for over 25 years and leading MSD's since 1995. Gary was the founding Executive Director of the Yale University's Global Institute of Sustainable of Forestry and helped to create and lead the Yale Forest Forum. He was also the National Roundtable Coordinator for the Seventh American Forest Congress and the US Liaison to the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development. Gary was a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya where he taught agroforestry and forest extension techniques at the Kenya Forestry College in Londiani. He holds a Master of Forestry degree from the Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a Bachelor's degree from Humboldt State University in California.
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
Gino comes from Peru, where he developed a fascination for the tropical ecosystems he frequently visited. He earned his B.S. in Biology at Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, with a focus on Ecology, and complemented his training in an Ecosystem Management international program as an exchange student at Western Washington University. After that, he completed a research internship at Texas A&M University, where he assisted in Red List assessments for the Small Mammals Specialist Group of IUCN. He has worked in an environmental consulting firm, informing mitigation practices for biodiversity components, as well as in WWF Peru, implementing wildlife conservation projects in the Amazon.
Currently, Gino is in his second year at Yale School of the Environment as a Master of Environmental Science candidate. He is interested in broadening his training in conservation, and aims to embrace the complexity of human-wildlife coexistence from a social-ecological perspective. At TFD, Gino is looking forward to working on the Forests and Climate Initiative and supporting processes of the organization.
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
Isabela is a Master of Environmental Management candidate at the Yale School of the Environment pursuing dual specializations in Business and Policy with a focus on climate finance in the Global South. After finishing her undergraduate degree in environmental studies, she embarked on a 12-month funded travel gap year studying climate-smart agriculture globally, with a focus on Southeast Asia and Latin America. She runs an environmental blog at www.isabelavalencia.com. Previously she worked at various environmental think tanks on REDD+ and value chain projects. She holds a BA in environmental studies from Wellesley College and has language proficiency in six languages.
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Steering Committee
Before being appointed at the end of 2023 as CEO for Empapel - the Brazilian Association of Paper Packaging, Ambassador José Carlos da Fonseca Júnior had been a career diplomat in the Brazilian Foreign Service for almost four decades up until he joined IBÁ- the Brazilian Tree Industry, in early 2019. Throughout his career, he has held many postings in Brazil and abroad. A former Ambassador to Myanmar, he was also the Deputy Chief of Mission in New Delhi, India, besides being posted twice in Washington, DC, as well as in Ottawa, Maputo, Abu Dhabi, Santiago, and Manila. Ambassador Fonseca was also a Member of the Federal Parliament, representing his home state of Espírito Santo, where he has also served as State Secretary of Finance and Chief of Staff for the Governor. At the Federal Government, in Brasilia, he has worked at the Foreign Ministry´s Trade Promotion Department and, twice, at the Ministry of Finance. Ambassador Fonseca seats at the Steering Committee of The Forests Dialogue (TFD), of the International Council of Forest and Paper Associations (ICFPA), besides being the Vice-Chair of the Advisory Committee on Sustainable Forest-based Industry (ACSFI/FAO. Since December 2021, Ambassador Fonseca has become the co-Facilitator of the Coalition Brazil Climate, Forests, and Agriculture, representing the private sector within this multistakeholder platform comprised of over 350 members from the private sector, NGOs, and the academic world. Currently, Ambassador Fonseca heads Empapel, remaining also responsible for the international and the advocacy activities of Ibá, in Brazil and abroad.
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Summer Associate, Associate
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
- Senior Vice President, Forests
As senior vice president for forests, Kerry leads a team and portfolio of strategic initiatives in pursuit of WWF's goal to conserve the world's forests - for nature, climate, and people. This includes investing in forest conservation, management, and restoration as essential means of mitigating climate change; implementing nature-based solutions with Indigenous peoples and local communities; and reducing the impacts of unsustainable logging, agriculture, and infrastructure. Kerry previously led WWF's forest markets work, launching the North American program of the Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN), and forging partnerships with Fortune 500 companies on responsible supply chains for wood and paper products. She has served as Co-chair of the Board of the Forest Stewardship Council-US, a certifier of forestry best practices that WWF helped to found in 1994.
Prior to WWF, Kerry worked with a First Nations forestry venture in British Columbia. She also advocated for environmental and women's issues in her roles as a consultant, scientist, U.S. PIRG field manager, and AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer. She received a B.S. in biology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a master's degree in environmental management from the Yale School of the Environment.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
Leah is a Master of Forestry candidate at Yale School of the Environment. She is interested in agroforestry, urban forestry, and the role of religion and spirituality in forest management. In addition to her work at TFD, she is a Research Associate at the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. Prior to coming to YSE, she worked as an organic produce farmer, an urban forester, and a program assistant at an international NGO. Leah holds a Master of Arts in Religion and Ecology from Yale Divinity School and a Bachelor's degree in Linguistics and Spanish from Gordon College.
Lisa O'Brien joined The Forests Dialogue (TFD) in the winter of 2008. She has worked for Yale University for over 15 years. Prior to joining TFD she worked in the financial offices of the Yale Law School as a Financial Assistant and for the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (FES) as an Assistant Business Administrator. During this period, she also worked on various accounting projects for The Urban Resources Initiative (URI) based at Yale FES. Outside of work, Lisa enjoys spending time with her husband and three daughters, gardening, skiing, hiking and cooking. She received her B.S. in Business Management from Southern Connecticut State University.
Liz Felker has worked for TFD since 2016 leading the Land Use Dialogue Initiative, supporting field dialogues in Tanzania, Ghana, and Brazil, and launching the Land Use Dialogue Fellowship program. She specializes in dialogue process design where she brings her training in political ecology and qualitative research to foster collaborative problem solving. She holds a Master of Environmental Science from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies where she focused on the social science of climate change and forest landscape restoration. She is interested in understanding the motivations and assumptions underlying people's relationships to the environment and each other and passionate about sharing this understanding in support of a more just and sustainable world.
Liz has more than eight years of experience in the environmental sector, specializing in social science research, stakeholder engagement, and sustainable land use. Her previous work experience includes research on community participation in REDD+ in West Kalimantan, Indonesia with the Center for International Forestry Research and managing an organic vegetable and flower farm in her home of Nashville, TN, USA. She received her B.S. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management with a minor in Forest Management from the University of California, Berkeley.
Liz's most recent work at TFD has included:
The Land Use Dialogues (LUDs)
Land Use Dialogue (LUD) Guide
TFD 20th Anniversary Launch Event
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Summer Associate, Program Associate
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Chief Sustainability Officer
- Head
- Member of the Steering Committee
- Head of Landscape Capital and Chief Sustainability Officer
Mark Wishnie is Chief Sustainability Officer and Head, Impact Investment Management at the BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group (TIG). Mark is responsible for sustainability across the firm's 3 million acre / $5.7 billion global timberland portfolio (as of August 2023) and leads the firm's climate-focused investment practice. Mark joined BTG from global non-profit The Nature Conservancy, where he led the organization's Global Forestry & Wood Products program. Previously, Mark served as head of portfolio management, analytics, and research at TIG, co-founded and served as Managing Director of Equator, LLC, a timberland and environmental commodity investment company, directed a joint research program of the Smithsonian Institution and Yale University focused on tropical forest restoration, and served as Program Director of the Yale Tropical Resources Institute. Mark's research has been published in journals such as Sustainability, Forest Ecology and Management, Conservation Biology, and The Annual Review of Anthropology. Mark holds a BS in Forest Management from the University of Washington and a Master of Forest Science from Yale University.
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
- Senior Environmental Specialist
Paul joined The World Bank Group in 2022, where he now works as a Senior Environmental Specialist. He is leading the coordination and implementation of the Cli mate Investment Funds' (CIF) work focused on natural resourcemanagement, including the Forest Investment Program and the Nature, People, and Climate Investments Program. From 2016-2021, Paul Hartman worked at the Global Environment Facility (GEF) as a Senior Environ mental Specialist. At the GEF he leads the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Program and oversees a portfolio of programs and projects focused on improving the sustainability of commodities to reduce tropical deforestation, sustainable forest management, and multi-focal initiatives in Asia. Prior to joining the GEF he spent 15 years in Southeast Asia working on forestry, biodiversity conservation, and climate change projects. He has led four U.S. Agency for International Development funded natural resources management projects as Chief of Party and served as the Director of The Nature Conser vancy's Indonesia Forests Program. Paul holds a master's degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University and a B.A. in political science from the State University of New York at Albany.
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- Member of the Steering Committee
- Sustainability Director
- Sustainability Director at the Navigator Company
Paula Guimarães is Sustainability Director at The Navigator Company and she is a passionate professional that embraces Sustainability as a driver for transformation and a lever for innovation and cooperation. Her extensive experience in developing corporative approaches on sustainability, with a national and international track-record, ranges from having implemented sustainable forest management certification and biodiversity conservation strategy, to driving the company's strategic Sustainability positioning with multidisciplinary projects over Science-based targets for climate, TCFD recommendations, Nature positive, Gender equity, and providing transparent performance disclosure on ESG ratings. She has long been representing the company as Liaison Delegate at WBCSD and its Forest Solutions Group, at BCSD Portugal and at multistakeholders platforms of Forests Forward (lead by WWF) and The Forests Dialogue. She was also part of FSC and PEFC Portugal board of directors in previous years, and forest and certification intersectoral working groups. Paula holds a degree and an MSc in Forestry by Lisbon Technical, a post-graduation in General Management, by Nova Sbe, and complementary training in Leadership and Sustainability. Paula held different roles since she joined the company, such as Forestry Operational Planning Manager, Certification Manager and, more recently, Sustainability Manager.
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Program Manager
- Researcher
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
- Director Sustainability
Sarah is passionate about people and trees and the potential to utilize forests to solve our global challenges. She is Director Sustainability for Sappi Europe, where she leads a dedicated team and provides strategic direction to accelerate sustainability transformation and performance within the company. Sappi is a leading global provider of sustainable woodfibre products.
Sarah serves as the Chair of CEPI's Environment & Safety Committee, the Co-Chair of 4Evergreen Alliance and is a Steering Committee member of The Forests Dialogue.
Working in the forest sector for over 25 years, Sarah's experience spans from operational forestry through to international forest policy and within research institutes, NGOs and private sector. She has previously held positions with PEFC International, The Forest Trust (now Earthworm Foundation) and The Forests Dialogue, in addition to spending many years living and working in the forests of North America, South America and Southeast Asia.
She possesses a Masters of Forest Science from Yale University and a Bachelors of Science in Natural Resource Conservation from the University of British Columbia. She lives in Geneva, Switzerland.
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
Steven is a first year MEM candidate at the Yale School of the Environment, specializing in both Ecosystem Management and Conservation, and People, Equity and the Environment. He is excited to learn more about equitable and inclusive strategies to improve landscape management plans and environmental stewardship programs.
Steven earned a Bachelor of Arts from Kenyon College in 2017, and has worn quite a few different hats while working in the field on varied conservation and restoration projects. Notably, Steven spent several years on Yosemite National Park's trail crew, as well as time monitoring human-bear interactions for California State Parks in Lake Tahoe. Prior to attending YSE, Steven managed a workforce development program that supported habitat restoration and urban tree canopy expansion projects for the environmental non-profit TreePeople in Los Angeles.
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Summer Associate, Associate
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Summer Associate, Associate
Violet is a Master of Environmental Management candidate at the Yale School of the Environment, specializing in Ecosystem Management and Conservation with a focus on the intersection of sustainable agricultural systems, land use, and nature-based solutions. At Yale, alongside her work with TFD, she is currently a research technician in Mark Bradford's lab focusing on forest carbon models and a research associate with the Center for Business and the Environment's Regenerative Agriculture Initiative. After finishing her undergraduate degree, Violet worked in strategy at Aleph Farms, an Israeli lab-grown meat company, and at Deloitte's Federal consulting practice working with the World Bank and the Gates Foundation to employ innovative finance mechanisms to incentivize the private sector to overcome market barriers for smallholders. She received her BA degree from Middlebury College in international and global studies with a focus on Arabic and the Middle East.
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- Member of the Steering Committee
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- Member of the Steering Committee
- Program Officer on the Natural Resources
- Program Officer, Natural Resources and Climate Change
Before joining Ford in 2019, Victor led the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests (AMPB) School for Youth Training and Leadership Development, where his fluency in regional dynamics allowed him to foster agreements with indigenous and community-based grassroots groups to develop joint training and leadership-promotion programs. Prior to that, as executive director of the Community Forestry Association of Guatemala Utz Che', he led staff and regional teams in their efforts to strengthen local governance of sustainable forest and natural resource management.
Víctor López Illescas is a program officer on the Natural Resources and Climate Change team, based in the foundation's Mexico and Central America office. He has been working with Guatemalan and Central American indigenous farmers and fishing communities for more than 20 years in various capacities, including as a forester, a forest firefighter, and a cooperative manager.