Stephen Kelleher has more than 30 years of experience leading complex global environmental and climate change programs. His work spans biodiversity conservation, community-based forest livelihoods, combating wildlife trafficking, and forest and land-use climate mitigation and adaptation. He is an experienced senior manager, having overseen budgets exceeding $50 million, diverse regional teams, and extensive grants and subcontracts, with a strong track record in cross-sectoral integration, monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
Stephen has led multi-party negotiations and high-level partnerships among governments, civil society, the private sector, and donors. He served as World Wildlife Fund’s global focal point on climate change and forests for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), strengthened the capacity of West African governments in implementing the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES), and collaborated with partners to integrate climate and forest objectives across the major international environmental conventions.
Most recently, Stephen was Chief of Party for USAID’s West Africa Biodiversity and Low Emissions Development (WABiLED) program and its predecessor, West Africa Biodiversity and Climate Change (WA BiCC), focusing on combating wildlife trafficking, reducing deforestation and biodiversity loss, advancing REDD+ and forest carbon finance, strengthening coastal climate resilience. Previously, he served as Chief of Party for USAID’s Forest Carbon, Markets and Communities program, and was Deputy Director of the IUCN and WWF-US’s Forest Conservation Programs, respectively. Earlier in his career, he served as a Senior Program Officer for Asia Pacific with the Biodiversity Support Program and as an environmental advisor to Haiti’s Ministry of Environment.
Stephen’s regional experience includes Africa, with a focus on West Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Haiti, and Latin America. He holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Management from Yale University and a BA in Political Science from Salem State University. He served three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin.