Jensen has served as the director of SNAPP since 2017. In the previous 9 years, she served The Nature Conservancy as a senior scientist and a member of SNAPP’s Science Advisory Council. She is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland.

Prior to joining SNAPP, Jensen managed diverse programs including the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Migratory Bird Program at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Conservation International’s Rapid Assessment Program, and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua.

A National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, Jensen received her doctorate in Interdisciplinary Ecology from the University of Florida the effects of human activity on endemic land birds in the Kingdom of Tonga and Turks and Caicos Islands.

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Geoff serves as Deputy Director of both SNAPP and NCEAS, one of SNAPP’s foundational partners. He has helped science organizations do conservation actions since 2004. He led watershed restoration projects in Northern California, managed research and education programs for the California Academy of Sciences, served as Treasurer of the Board of Directors for RE-volv (a renewable energy non-profit), and was a Fellow with both the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps and the Coro Center for Civic Leadership.

While completing a Master’s in Conservation Planning with the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara, Geoff worked with Northern Californian ranchers to identify feasible ways to minimize local wolf-livestock conflicts and support coexistence with this predator.

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Benita Hussain is the Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Conservation Solutions division, which focuses on three of WCS’s cross-cutting efforts:  Climate Change, Food & Economic Security, and Sustainable Business.  Prior, Benita was a public affairs director at Bloomberg Philanthropies, where she helped shape Mike Bloomberg’s global agenda on cities and climate change, and was also a climate advisor to the late-Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.  Benita earned a Bachelors in Environmental Studies from Cornell University and has a law degree from Fordham University School of Law.  An avid surfer and swimmer living in Brooklyn with her husband and son, her travel and environmental writing has appeared in Outside Magazine, SIERRA, GOOD, and the Boston Globe.

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Jeanne Kearns is the Director of Development for the National Center of Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and is the Fundraising Team lead for SNAPP. Jeanne also partners in the advancement of the Environmental and Ecological Sciences at UC Santa Barbara. With more than a decade of development experience, Jeanne brings a collaborative and innovative approach to fundraising ideally suited to the SNAPP partnership. When she is not helping donors and funders tackle the world’s major environmental challenges through philanthropy, she can be found enjoying Santa Barbara’s beautiful parks and beaches with her husband and two small children.

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Matt Miller is director of science communications for The Nature Conservancy and editor of the Cool Green Science blog. A lifelong naturalist and outdoor enthusiast, he has covered stories on science and nature around the globe. Matt has worked for the Conservancy for the past 14 years, previously serving as director of communications for the Idaho program. He is a former board member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America and an avid hunter, angler, distance runner and mammal enthusiast. He lives in Boise, Idaho with his wife and young son.

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Jessica is a Governance Economist with Global Science at The Nature Conservancy, where she focuses on integrating social and economic science into conservation practice. Her work involves developing and piloting approaches to integrate human-wellbeing considerations into planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of conservation projects. Jessica led the design and implementation of the first devolved social monitoring system to track the impacts of conservation on pastoralists in the community conservancies of northern Kenya. She has worked on beef supply chain sustainability and is currently exploring the role of tenure security in conservation programs.

Prior to joining the Nature Conservancy, Jessica worked on grassland ecosystem service valuation and developing payments for ecosystem service programs accessible to ranchers. Jessica has extensive field experience having conducted research on natural resource and development issues in Africa and USA on topics that include game ranching, smallholder agriculture, community based natural resource management and fisheries management. Jessica holds a PhD and MSc in Food and Resource Economics from the University of Florida, and a BSc in Agricultural Economics from the University of Zimbabwe.

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