Dr. Rachel Neugarten is Executive Director of Conservation Planning for the Wildlife Conservation Society. She has more than two decades of experience in conducting scientific research to inform conservation practice and policy. In the past, she has served as Director for Conservation Priority Setting for Conservation International (2011-2019) and Conservation Planning and Information Specialist for The Nature Conservancy (2004-2008). She has led large-scale spatial planning research to inform conservation investment and decision-making in Madagascar, Cambodia, Liberia, the Amazon, the Asia Pacific region, and globally. She has published and co-authored peer-reviewed scientific articles in journals including Nature Communications, Nature Ecology and Evolution, Nature Sustainability, Science Advances, and BioScience. She has expertise in spatial planning, modeling nature’s contributions to people (ecosystem services) and impact evaluation. Rachel has a PhD and MS from Cornell University, and a BA from Columbia University.