Advisory board
WILLIAM DEBUYS
William deBuys is an award-winning writer and conservationist, eight of whose nine books concern the land and culture of the North American Southwest.
From 1982 to 1986 he directed the North Carolina Chapter of the Nature Conservancy and from the late 1980s through the 1990s he represented The Conservation Fund in the Southwest. His efforts have led to the permanent protection of over 150,000 acres of wild lands in North Carolina and the Southwest.
From 1997 to 2004 he developed and directed the Valle Grande Grass Bank, a cooperative effort involving ranchers, conservationists, and public agencies in the rehabilitation of rangelands in northern New Mexico. From 2001 to 2004, under appointment by President William Clinton, he served as founding chairman of the Valles Caldera Trust, which administers the 89,000-acre Valles Caldera National Preserve under an experimental approach to the management of public lands.
DeBuys earned an MA and PhD in American Civilization from the University of Texas at Austin. He was named a Lyndhurst Fellow for 1986-1988, a Carl and Florence King Fellow at SMU in 1999-2000, and a Guggenheim Fellow in 2008-2009.
HELEN GICHOHI
Helen Gichohi is currently the Ambassador for Conservation in Africa for Fauna and Flora International where she serves on a part time basis. She joined FFI from Equity Group Foundation where she had served as managing director from 2012 to 2017.
Prior to that, she spent 11 years with the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), where she served as first director of the African Heartlands Program, before rising to become Vice President for Program in February 2002. In 2007, she was appointed the first AWF President and led the move of the organization’s headquarters from Washington, DC to Nairobi as well as the expansion of AWF’s program in Africa. Helen has received numerous honors, including three presidential awards, the Order of Grand Warrior and two Moran of the Order of Burning Spear for her distinguished service to conservation and development in Kenya.
She holds a doctorate in ecology from the University of Leicester in the UK, a Master of Science in the biology of conservation from the University of Nairobi, and a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from Kenyatta University. She serves on the boards of Equity Group Holdings Limited, Olpejeta Conservancy, Laikipia Ranching and previously sat on the boards of African Wildlife Foundation, Equity Bank Limited and the Kenya Wildlife Service.
YOLANDA KAKABADSE
Yolanda Kakabadse is presently the Co-Chair of WWF-US and trustee of WWF International. She was previously the President of WWF International from 2010 to 2017. Yolanda Kakabadse's work with the environmental conservation movement officially began in 1979, when she was appointed Executive Director of Fundación Natura in Quito, Ecuador, where she worked until 1990.
In 1993, she created Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano, an organization dedicated to promote the sustainable development of Latin America through conflict prevention and management. She was its Executive President until 2006 and remains active as Chair of the Advisory Board.
From 1990 until 1992, Yolanda Kakabadse coordinated the participation of civil society organizations for the United Nations Conference for Environment and Development (Earth Summit).
From 1996 to 2004 she was President of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and Member of the Board of the World Resources Institute (WRI) during the same period. Yolanda was appointed Minister of Environment for the Republic of Ecuador, a position she held from 1998 until 2000.
She is a Member of the Advisory Board of Arabesque, Chairs the Independent Science and Technology Panel of Fundación Renova in Brazil, and Chairs the Charles Darwin Foundation. Yolanda is also a Member of the Board of Sistema B and the B Team. Her home is in Quito, Ecuador.
GRANT PARKER
Grant Parker has a long history of non-profit, natural resource and charitable work. He has been involved in protecting hundreds of thousands of acres through various land acquisition and conservation easement projects. Parker has served as General Counsel to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (“RMEF”) since 1996.
Parker serves on several non-profit Boards including the Liz Claiborne & Art Ortenberg Foundation Advisory Board, the Cinnabar Foundation, the Upper Pergatoire Foundation, and as an Emeritus Trustee of the Teller Wildlife Refuge. He is a native of Montana and received B.A. and B.S. degrees from Williams College and a J.D. from the University of Washington. He is licensed to practice law in Montana and Washington.
SHIVSHARAN SOMESHWAR
Shiv Someshwar is a Development Clinician, diagnosing development of cities and nation states. A Visiting Professor at Columbia University, New York and at Sciences Po, Paris, he was the founder chair-holder of the European Chair for Sustainable Development and Climate Transition at Sciences Po. He helped set up the initial national and regional networks of the global Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
His publications cover a range of issues: planning, institutions and governance for sustainable development; climate change mitigation, adaptation, risks and offsets; and ecosystem management. He edited ‘Re-living the Memories of an Indian forester: Memoir of S. Shyam Sunder’ and is presently writing ‘The Fallacy of Evidence-Based Policy Making.’
Someshwar convened and chaired the Independent Task Force on Creative Climate Action. He has a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, and he was a Bell-MacArthur fellow at Harvard University. He has two masters’ degrees, on housing and on environmental planning, and is also trained as a professional architect. He has previously worked at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, the World Bank in Washington, DC and the Rockefeller Foundation in New York.