About ISTF 2024

Lucia is a second-year Master of Environmental Management candidate at Yale School of the Environment, specializing in Ecosystem Management and Conservation. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering, focusing on Biodiversity, from Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola, Peru. Her focus on natural resources governance, participatory biodiversity conservation, and restoration of tropical forests led her to join the local NGO Forest of Hope Association as a chimpanzee habituation intern in the Gishwati Mukura National Park in Rwanda in the summer of 2023. Her professional journey has also included serving as the Coordinator of Volunteer Programs at the Peruvian Food Bank, contributing as an environmental intern at Barrick Mining Company in the Lagunas Norte Mine Site in Peru, and taking on the role of Lima and Callao’s regional coordinator in the Peruvian Chapter of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN Peru). Lucia’s professional goals are to design and implement solid people-centered and community-engaged projects in the Amazon Rainforests of her country, Peru, that focus on preserving and recovering those tropical ecosystems while improving the quality of life of indigenous and local communities.

Kayleigh Crabb is a second-year Master of Environmental Management (MEM) student at the Yale School of the Environment. Her academic and professional interests include sustainable development and environmental diplomacy, with a focus on climate change. She recently contributed to the USAID Sustainable Environmental Governance Across Regions (SEGAR) Activity in Indonesia as an intern with Chemonics and assisted the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) at the Conference on Biological Diversity COP15. Prior to matriculating at YSE, Kayleigh studied International Studies and Political Science at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. A few of her endeavors as an undergraduate included serving as Sustainability Committee Chair for the Global Scholars Program and assisting with tropical forest and marine research in Indonesia through Operation Wallacea.

Shannon is a second year MESc candidate at the Yale School of Environment, advised by Dr. Carol Carpenter. Her research explores the link between women’s economic empowerment and agricultural outcomes in Malawi’s matriarichal and patriarichal land tenure systems. Committed to environmental sustainability while promoting community resilience, she is passionate about the intersection between forests, agriculture, and international development. Prior to Yale, Shannon studied enviornmental science and economics at the University of Florida, where she lead food secuirty projects both locally in Gainesville and abroad in Kenya.

Alicia Entem is a PhD candidate in YSE’s Environmental and Natural Resource Economics program and is supervised by Dr. Eli Fenichel. She has an MA in Economics from Yale and an MSc in Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics from the University of Alberta. Before starting her doctoral studies, Alicia was a fellow with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution in Panama and investigated landholder adoption of agroforestry systems for the provision of ecosystem services. She has also worked on projects with the Alberta Land Institute (University of Alberta) and Smart Prosperity Institute (University of Ottawa).

Aira Mae Tingzon Gavan, also known as Airi to her peers, is currently pursuing a Master of Environmental Management at the Yale School of the Environment. She holds a Bachelor’s in Environmental Science from Visayas State University, Baybay City, Leyte. Before joining Yale, Airi was a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Region VIII Office in Tacloban City, Philippines.
Her academic and professional focus encompasses tropical forest restoration and conservation, intersectional environmentalism, and policy analysis. She is driven to contribute to addressing the technical gaps and numerous challenges within community-based forest management areas. Additionally, she advocates for Filipino women’s empowerment and sustainable involvement in social forestry.

Stefanía is a biologist from Peru and a first-year Master of Environmental Management candidate at Yale School of the Environment. She has worked in the Knowledge Management team at DecarBOOST, a multilateral climate finance project for mitigation actions in LATAM with a focus on Argentina, Brazil and Peru. Before that, she worked as an analyst in an environmental impact assessment consulting firm, evaluating impacts from mining and energy companies in Peru and the Caribbean. Besides, she is an alumna of the Tropical Forest Landscapes: Conservation & Restoration program at the Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative (ELTI) of YSE. Her interest is in climate finance for restoration actions in tropical forests linking climate mitigation and adaptation. Please upload a photo for the website — ideally a nice headshot where your face can be seen clearly.

Katherine Meier is a 6th-year doctoral student in Yale’s combined anthropology and environmental studies program. She came into this program with BA in Anthropology from Macalester College and extensive primate field ecology experience in Madagascar and Indonesia. Her dissertation research uses transdisciplinary methods (ecological, ethnographic, archival) to examine the ecology and conservation of gorillas and chimpanzees living in a seasonally-flooded community reserve in the Republic of Congo. Her research interests broadly include great ape conservation, wetland forest ecology, and conservation political ecology.

Sofía is a first-year Master of Environmental Science candidate at the Yale School of the Environment. She comes from Quito, Ecuador, and holds a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador. She is interested in science communication and ecological interactions in tropical forests. She is advised by Simon Queenborough and is currently working on a project studying the trees that form “Devil’s Gardens” in Yasuni National Park. For her MESc thesis, she seeks to understand how ecological interactions can contribute to preserving tropical ecosystems and their biodiversity.

Laura is a first-year Master of Environmental Management candidate at Yale School of the Environment. Her interests include climate change adaptation policy and finance, and agricultural policy. Before coming to Yale, she worked at an international NGO doing research on the effectiveness of different programs and policies in Latin America and the Caribbean. She worked on a project evaluating the effectiveness of an initiative to promote the conservation of mangroves in the Dominican Republic and on a research project aiming to gather information to design and implement air pollution policies in Colombia. Laura hopes to help countries develop evidence-based programs to adapt to climate change.

Rinchui Raman, a first-year Master of Environmental Management (MEM) ‘25 candidate, is dedicated to exploring the responses and contributions of indigenous communities in addressing climate change, biodiversity, and conservation challenges. In her 8 years of professional experience, she collaborated with diverse indigenous and marginalised communities in North-East and Central India. Her impactful roles focused on mitigating climate change effects, addressing developmental gaps, and combating environmental degradation. She engaged in initiatives promoting alternative livelihoods, climate justice, gender inclusivity, innovative land reclamation methods for biodiversity conservation and extensively promoted cultivation of native crops . She co-founded the ISTF 2023 Innovation Prize-winning Rainforest Biodiversity of Phalee, India. Rinchui aims to deepen her expertise in MEM to further contribute to sustainable environmental practices.

Ananya Rao is a first year Master of Environmental Science candidate at Yale School of the Environment. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology from Ashoka University, India. She has worked on issues of community forest rights management and augmenting forest-based livelihoods in Central India and on restoration of degraded agricultural and commons land in Southern India. Her areas of interest are indigenous forest rights, agrarian change, and the use and governance of natural resources. At Yale, her thesis focuses on the impact of forest fragmentation on land rights and livelihood change in India.

Gino is a second-year student in the Master of Environmental Science. He earned a B.S. in Biology in Peru 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 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. Gino is interested in the relationship between conservation and development in tropical socio-ecosystems, especially dry forests.

Sophie Roberts, raised in Northern California, received a Bachelor of Science in environmental science from UCLA, where she was a member of the Forest Ecosystems and Global Change Lab. Following this, Sophie spent a year as a remote sensing data analyst at the nonprofit CTrees, contributing to the development of a robust forest carbon monitoring system. Currently enrolled at Yale School of Environment, Sophie is pursuing a Master of Forest Science degree with research focused on the convergence of forest conservation and sustainable development, specifically through agroforestry. Her broad interests extend to forest ecosystems, geospatial analysis, and the balance of mitigating climate change while addressing global community needs.

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.