Conservation Planning

Dr. Rachel Neugarten

Dr. Rachel Neugarten is Executive Director of Conservation Planning for the Wildlife Conservation Society. She has more than two decades of experience in conducting scientific research to inform biodiversity conservation in practice. In the past, she has served as Director for Conservation Priority Setting for Conservation International (2011-2019) and Conservation Planning and Information Specialist for The Nature Conservancy (2004-2008). She has led large-scale spatial planning research to inform conservation investment in Madagascar, Cambodia, Liberia, the Amazon, the Asia Pacific region, and globally. She has published and co-authored more than a dozen peer-reviewed scientific articles in journals including Nature Communications, Nature Ecology and Evolution, Science Advances, and BioScience. She has expertise in spatial modeling of ecosystem services and measuring the impacts of conservation interventions on biodiversity and people. Rachel has a PhD from Cornell University, and a BA from Columbia University.