Phoebe Barnard, PhD

Phoebe lived and worked in southern Africa from 1983 to 2017 in the realms of biodiversity strategic planning, science and policy, climate change planning and bioadaptation, and national development strategy.  She was born and raised in the USA and is a terrestrial ecologist and ornithologist by training, but always had a bigger-scale perspective. In 1994 she founded and, for 10 years, led Namibia's national programs on biodiversity and, more briefly, climate change. She was lead climate bioadaptation scientist at the South African National Biodiversity Institute, led the Pacific Biodiversity Institute (USA) and now co-leads the Conservation Biology Institute (USA), as well as being affiliate full professor at the University of Washington and honorary research associate at the University of Cape Town's African Climate and Development Initiative and FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology. She holds a PhD in animal ecology from Uppsala University (Sweden), a MSc in zoology from the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) and BSc Hons from Acadia University (Canada), and has received Fulbright, SCB Distinguished Service, and Esther Forbes Distinguished Professional Achievement Awards. But ultimately she's just an optimistic girl who loves to have fun and climb volcanoes with her groovy husband.