Managing Director, Global Policy – National Audubon Society

As Managing Director for Global Policy at the National Audubon Society (Audubon), Chris is keen to draw on her policy and programmatic experience to advance the efforts of the US National Committee. She has been working at the intersection of conservation and climate change for more than two decades. At the World Bank and at Conservation International, she designed and implemented programs in biodiversity conservation, protected areas management, sustainable agriculture and forestry, climate change, and more. While serving in the climate change office of the US Department of State, Chris developed and advanced policy efforts to combat deforestation, improve land use, set and implement ambitious climate targets, and improve the transparency of reporting. Now at Audubon, she is leading the organization’s engagement on global conservation and climate policy, working with stakeholders from the local level all the way through national institutions.

As a member of the US National Committee (hereafter, USNC) Executive Committee, Chris will bring both her professional qualifications and the expertise of colleagues at Audubon. Audubon (a recently reinstated member of IUCN) brings deep scientific and programmatic expertise, backed by a 120-year history of working with diverse constituencies throughout the US and the hemisphere.

Chris will draw on this experience to bring to the USNC a keen sense of how to increase support for, and the relevancy of, IUCN’s work in these complex times. She also hopes to draw on a diverse network of the types of contacts and partners critical to IUCN’s work, ranging from local level institutions to multinational companies and government leaders. Finally, she brings to this work a true passion for conservation and climate action in the US and beyond.

Manager of Species Partnerships – Re:wild
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Jennifer is currently serving on the USNC Executive Committee and is nominated for a third two-year term. As Manager of Species Partnerships at Re:wild, Jennifer is on a mission to foster collaborations that benefit the wild. She values co-created solutions because they are effective and there is strength in numbers, and because something new and unique can come from the combination of talents and perspectives. After all, this planet lives and breathes and evolves through communities and symbioses.

The seeds of Jennifer’s career were planted in A Rocha’s community-based projects in Kenya, the United Kingdom, Canada, and on her university campus where she became a bird nerd. Naturally, this led her to interning in the Bird Lab of the US Forest Service Redwood Sciences Laboratory. These experiences grew into work focused on international cooperation.

From 2011-2016, Jennifer served on the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Chair’s Office team under Dr. Simon Stuart. Her leadership of the IUCN SSC Amphibian Red List Authority mobilized more than 1,000 experts worldwide and resulted in the publication of the second Global Amphibian Assessment in 2023.

She is a member of the Committee on Standard English and Scientific Names (Anuran subcommittee). Jennifer’s childhood home is in Switzerland, where she first learned to love our beautiful, wild world.

Senior Attorney, Global Biodiversity, Nature Program – National Resources Defense Council

Paul Todd is committed to reducing the impacts of overexploitation, climate change, habitat destruction, and other threats to imperiled species and wild places around the world. He provides technical advice and guidance to NRDC, partner organizations, and governments on the effective use of international law and policy to achieve biodiversity conservation objectives and represents NRDC in multilateral forums such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Convention on Migratory Species.

Before joining NRDC, Paul spent seven years as Director of International Law and Policy at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (an IUCN Member) and four years as a lobbyist for Defenders of Wildlife. He also worked on Capitol Hill as a legislative aide and communications director for two members of the US Congress. Paul has degrees in journalism, environmental science, and law from the University of Kansas, and is admitted to the state bar of Colorado.

With respect to IUCN, Paul is a member of the Species Survival Commission Otter Specialist Group, and he currently leads NRDC’s engagement with IUCN, furthering an almost 40-year history for NRDC as an active member organization. He often works with other IUCN members, IUCN bodies, and the IUCN Council to identify challenges faced by IUCN members in navigating IUCN processes, including the motions process, and to propose solutions to those challenges that will help to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in support of the Union and its mission.

Board Member – George Wright Society

Lauren Wenzel recently retired from NOAA after 22 years, serving since 2015 as the Director of NOAA’s National Marine Protected Areas Center. She continues to be actively involved with IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas, the George Wright Society, the North American Marine Protected Area Network, the US Biosphere Network, among other projects. She is committed to connecting and strengthening the nation’s diverse marine and coastal protected area programs through capacity building, information and tools, communication, and collaborative governance. She builds partnerships among US and international marine and coastal programs, Tribal and Indigenous communities, community and nongovernmental partners, and stakeholders to demonstrate the value of protecting the ocean’s most important places. In 2023, Lauren served on a detail as the Senior Advisor for Conservation to NOAA Deputy Administrator Jainey Bavishi, facilitating the designation of new national marine sanctuaries.

Lauren brings over a decade of engagement with IUCN and aims to support and facilitate the involvement of US members in IUCN. She has been actively involved with IUCN since the 2014 World Parks Congress in Sydney, serving as a member of the Ocean Team that worked to elevate ocean issues, commitments and outcomes at the Congress. Lauren led NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries’ involvement in the 2016 World Conservation Congress in Hawaii, highlighting the key role of Native Hawaiians in protected area management, and the intertwining of nature and culture. She has also been actively involved as a member of the Steering Committee for the International Marine Protected Areas Congresses.

Lauren will bring broad knowledge of ocean and coastal conservation issues to the Executive Committee and the US National Committee, as well as strong networks within the ocean community and the World Commission on Protected Areas. She has participated for several years in the USNC, and is eager to support US conservation efforts and networks through the unique structure of IUCN.

IUCN Regional Councilor, North America and the Caribbean

Kathryn Gwiazdon, J.D., is Executive Director, Center for Environmental Ethics and Law, a member of the Steering Committee of the Ecological Law and Governance Association, and Deputy Chair, Ethics Specialist Group, IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. She was with the Center for Humans and Nature from 2005–12, and served as the Director of the North American Global Responsibilities program from 2009–12. During her time with CHN, and since 2005, she has worked closely with Dr. J. Ronald Engel on the Biosphere Ethics Initiative (BEI). The BEI is an international soft law program that seeks to bear witness to, highlight, and share principles of environmental ethics to guide individual, organizational, and governmental/policy decision-making at the local, regional, state, and international level. The BEI has been adopted as a foundational policy to IUCN, the world’s oldest and largest international environmental organization. In 2016 she founded the Center for Environmental Ethics and Law to serve as the permanent home, and advance the work of, the Biosphere Ethics Initiative. Kathryn has taught courses at the J.D. and LLM-level, has worked in more than 15 countries, and serves on several Boards and Steering Committees that advance new frameworks in law, ecological law, climate change justice, ecological integrity, and public health.

Chair Emeritus – IUCN US National Committee
Executive Director (retired) – Cornell Botanic Gardens

Dr. Christopher Dunn is Chair Emeritus of the IUCN National Committee for the USA and retired Executive Director of the Cornell Botanic Gardens. His involvement with IUCN is deep, enthusiastic, and based on building consensus and collaboration. He initiated and co-organized the 2016 WCC in Hawai’i, recruited many new US-based IUCN members, worked with IUCN colleagues in the US to establish the US National Committee, served on the IUCN 2017-2020 Programme Committee, and is currently on the IUCN US Fund Board of Directors. He is particularly engaged in facilitating greater representation by Indigenous Peoples’ Organizations and by natural history organizations such as botanic gardens and arboreta.