Dr Emily Weeks, provides leadership across Climate, Natural Resource Management, Land and Resource Governance, Resilience and Food Security. She has led several key efforts including the Natural Resource Management guidance for the US Government Global Food Security Strategy for Resilience, Climate and Natural Resource Management policy, The Agency guidance on Nature Based Solutions, and the Land and Resource Governance Joint statement. Emily is a co-chair on the Global Donor Working Group for land, was the USAID representative on the National Climate Assessment 5, committee member on the donor advisor group for Agro-Ecology and committee member on the FAO Fisheries panel. She was also the lead for IPPC review in 2019 and was part of the USG delegation for the IPCC. Emily established the Comprehensive Action for Climate Change Initiative (CACCI), a global initiative that supports local organizations to work with key stakeholders at country level to meet NDC and NAP commitments. She was also the co-founder of the National Land Resource Centre, in New Zealand. She has managed over 20 themed collaborative research projects, as well conducted research for a range of projects in Oceania, Asia and Africa. She has a PhD in conservation biology and an MSc in Marine Ecology.

With over 23 years of experience in global development, Dr. Kablan specializes in designing, implementing, and scaling multi-sectoral nutrition programs that bridge research and real-world impact. His expertise spans food systems and various elements such as food loss and waste, nutrition, and food safety, integrating evidence-based solutions across agriculture, health, education, and private sector initiatives. He has built a strong international network across governments, private sector, academia, and philanthropic/NGO sectors, fostering strategic partnerships that drive transformative change. Through WICE Consulting, Dr Kablan provides tailored strategies to strengthen food systems, enhance nutrition outcomes, and promote sustainability worldwide

Dr Khutso Madubanya, designs and leads community outreach and environmental awareness programs. Works with local communities to foster sustainable practices and raise awareness of conservation issues. Develops educational materials, workshops, and events to promote community involvement. Khutso has worked professionally with leading minds in various industries, building bridges between public and private sector stakeholders locally and internationally including clients, vendors, intergovernmental officials, and community members as demonstrated by leading 65 partnerships over 8 years. She has led 30 sustainable development projects over 6 years, 15 community development projects over 2 years, and 11 social impact marketing campaigns for corporate clients over 2 years.

Kathryn Bertram is a global public health, advocacy, and strategic communication expert with over 17 years of experience. She specializes in shaping global health strategies, advocacy, and strategic social and behavior change and risk communication and community engagement to drive systemic change, improve health outcomes, and create lasting health and social impacts. Her career with Global Policy Solutions, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, and the Panagora Group reflects a proven track record in leading strategic planning, capacity strengthening, and advocacy initiatives, and guiding health programming on disease prevention. Her experience includes working within global health security and One Health platforms, focusing on animal-human-environment interfaces. Specifically, Kathryn brings extensive experience in preparedness, readiness, and response initiatives addressing a wide range of disease threats, including emerging zoonotic diseases and neglected tropical diseases. She has developed global guidance and toolkits and provided strategic advice to implementers in strengthening risk communication and community engagement, social and behavior change, contact tracing, community-based surveillance, and community action planning for infectious diseases, which have strengthened local capacities to improve disease detection and response. Kathryn has also cultivated public-private partnerships, mobilized resources and policy change, and enhanced interagency collaboration to mitigate the impacts of diseases on health, well-being, and economies. Aside from public health emergencies, Kathryn has extensive experience in nutrition, malaria, and maternal and child health.

Dr. Sarah Paige is a trusted global health professional with over 15 years of experience living and working in sub-Saharan Africa. She has built enduring relationships with NGOs, civil society organizations, and national and local government partners, all united by the shared goal of preventing, detecting, and responding to emerging infectious disease threats. Sarah is an expert in communicating highly technical information across the domains of human health, animal health, and the environment to diverse audiences through a variety of media. She is also an effective team leader in high-pressure, fast-moving situations such as outbreak responses, known for her ability to rapidly identify priorities and deliver critical information to high-level stakeholders.

Dr. Ir. Daan Vreugdenhil, oversees the strategic planning, development, and implementation of global conservation initiatives. Collaborates with international partners, manages project budgets, and ensures program alignment with the organization's goals. Provides leadership to conservation teams and serves as a key spokesperson for conservation issues. Daan has worked for 30 years in planning and management of natural resources of temperate and tropical terrestrial and aquatic environments. His career took him across 5 continents, while dealing with dry and humid tropical as well as temperate ecosystems. His background includes vegetation and animal ecology as well as natural resources and national parks management.

Dr. Patrick Webb has worked extensively on food policy, nutrition research, humanitarian emergencies, and climate change interactions with food systems. He holds the prestigeous Alexander MacFarlane endowed chair in the Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts University, where he served as the School’s Dean for Academic Affairs for 9 years. He recently served as Chief Nutritionist for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), overseeing nutrition priorities and strategies across the agency.

Dr. Suresh Babu draws on his interdisciplinary background with formal training in agriculture, environmental economics, data analytics, and public policy to inform his work in climate solutions, policy, and action. Dr. Babu has over three decades of policy research and implementation experience in sustainable food and natural resource systems in the Global South. He has published 28 books and edited volumes, 129 refereed journal articles, 99 chapters in books and conference proceedings, and many working papers and pieces in popular press. An effective policy communicator, his food crisis management and higher education contributions in Africa resulted in two US Congressional Testimonies. As a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), he recently served as the Asia Lead for the USAID’s Comprehensive Action for Climate Initiative (CACCI) which engaged with and strengthened climate policy systems in 12 countries in Asia. Dr. Babu also led IFPRI’s partnership with USAID’s Feed the Future - Food Security Policy Innovation Lab (PRCI), which strengthened food policy think tanks and policy systems in 14 countries in Asia and Africa. Similar multicounty programs have been the hallmark of his research, capacity development, and policy communications career at IFPRI. Over the past 33 years at IFPRI, Dr. Babu established IFPRI’s Learning Program and implemented institutional and human capacity strengthening for higher education, research, extension, and policy systems in more than 40 countries in the Global North and South. He has strengthened the capacity of more than 6,000 mid-career professionals, policy researchers, analysts, and advisors through learning programs and mentorship in food, nutrition, agricultural, and natural resource policy analysis and policy communications. Dr. Babu served as a Coordinating Lead Author of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. He currently serves as the Extraordinary Professor, University of Pretoria, South Africa and holds or held honorary/visiting professorships at the Kasetsart University, Thailand, University College, Cork, Ireland, the Chinese Academy of Rural Development, Zhejiang University, and Indira Gandhi National Open University, India. He has been quoted, profiled or interviewed in popular press including the Time Magazine, New York Times, St Louis Post Dispatch, The Reuters, IPS News Service, AllAfrica.com, Times of India, Economic Times, Financial Express, Business Standard, The Hindu, South African Farmer, BBC, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Pakistan Public Television, Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, Indian National Television, and All India Radio. Dr. Babu began his post-doctoral career as a Research Economist, Cornell University and outposted as a Senior Food Policy Advisor to the Malawi Ministry of Agriculture, where he developed a national-level Food and Nutrition Information System that helped to prevent famine and starvation. He also served as an Evaluation Economist for UNICEF-Malawi designing decentralized food security and nutrition intervention programs. Dr. Babu holds MS and PhD degrees in Economics from Iowa State University.