I am passionate about this beautiful planet and the amazing people we share it with. And I love that humanity has created the tools to both understand and bring about a better future. For my small part, I focus on bridging the gap between science and society to identify scalable solutions to the grand challenges facing our world. In particular, I am keen on bringing innovation to solve environmental grand challenges.
I am the co-founder and COO/CSO of Conservation X Labs, an organization that brings innovation to global conservation threats. Conservation X Labs brings technology and entrepreneurship to conservation using a mix of crowdsourcing, open innovation, directed research, and acceleration. At Conservation X Labs, we focus on bringing new technologies that can scale up to global application in order to end human-caused extinction and preserve our planet’s biodiversity.
I used to be the Chief Scientist at the XPRIZE Foundation, where I led the impact strategy across grand challenge domains, spanning civil society, environment, energy, health, and exploration. While at XPRIZE, I had the honor to lead multiple global competitions worth more than $30 million in prizes.
I was formerly the founding Executive Director of the UCLA Center for Climate Change Solutions, the Managing Director of the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability, and served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Oceans. I have also served on the boards of several companies and organizations who focus on transforming our planet for the better, including Volans Ventures, the City of Los Angeles’ Green Retrofit Advisory Council, the UCLA Center for Tropical Research, Clean Tech LA, Climate Resolve, the Los Angeles Sustainability Collaborative, and the AGU Centennial Committee. In 2013, the American Association for the Advancement of Science honored me as one of 40 individuals that exemplify the thousands of AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellows who are dedicated to applying science to serve society. I am trained in biology, with a B.S. from the University of Southern California and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.