As Director of Strategic Conservation at the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), Dawn is accelerating conservation impact by integrating and expanding private land conservation partnerships and expertise into Canadian and international biodiversity and climate dialogues. Before joining NCC, Dawn was the Executive Director for the Canadian Parks Council (CPC), advising senior government executives in Canada’s national, provincial, and territorial parks and protected area communities. With over 20 years of experience, Dawn’s passion extends into volunteer roles with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Dawn holds graduate degrees from Queen’s University and the University of Waterloo, focused on environmental policy and community development. Most recently, Dawn was recognized by the CPC with an Individual Award of Excellence for her exemplary contribution to Canada’s parks community during her Executive Director tenure from 2012-2021.

Deb Davidson is the Chief Strategy Officer at the Center for Large Landscape Conservation. She directs partnerships and network development, fundraising, program management, and strategic planning for the Center and its domestic and global conservation programs. In addition to overseeing program and organizational development, Deb ensures the implementation of regranting and program delivery for the Center’s fiscally sponsored projects (Network for Landscape Conservation and US Biosphere Networks). She also provides leadership on human resources, program administration, board development, communications, and organizational governance.

Deb has worked in conservation philanthropy, landscape conservation, and habitat protection programs for over 20 years. She has largely focused on working with a wide diversity of partners and communities to protect wildlife corridors and large landscapes, specifically focusing on network development, connectivity policy, and science in North America. Before joining the Center, Deb was a grantmaker for the Wilburforce Foundation and a program staffer for American Wildlands, the Ecology Center, and Montana Outdoor Science School. She has served on numerous boards, including as the Bozeman Community Food Co-op president and as an advisor to the Gallatin Valley Land Trust. 

Jessa Rae Growing Thunder comes from the Fort Peck Assiniboine (Nakoda)/Sioux (Dakota) tribes. She is a third-generation beadwork and quillwork artist, educator, and historian. Jessa Rae is the Director of Tribal Nation Initiatives at Native Americans in Philanthropy (NAP). She has a background in community-based methodologies, networking, facilitation, advocacy, and project development and management. Her current portfolio consists of working with Tribal communities on efforts of climate, conservation, and Tribal philanthropy.

Before joining NAP, she was the Indigenous Exchange Advisor at the Inter-American Foundation, where she led the development of a congressionally mandated initiative that fostered sustainable relationships between Native American communities and Indigenous communities in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Jessa Rae holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Native American Studies from the University of California, Davis.

Chandni Navalkha is the Program Manager for Land Conservation Programs at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, where she works on projects to advance and accelerate the enduring protection of land and water resources worldwide. Chandni coordinates the activities of the International Land Conservation Network, including the Large Landscape Peer Learning Initiative, which brings together private and civic land conservation practitioners from around the world to share expertise, experience, and inspiration. Before joining the Lincoln Institute, Chandni was a fellow with the Sri Lanka Program for Forest Conservation, conducting research on the impacts of conservation on local livelihoods near the Sinharaja World Heritage Site. She has worked for organizations in North America, Latin America, and South Asia supporting urban, peri-urban, and rural communities involved in voluntary land and resource conservation, and earlier in her career worked in change management for private and public sector organizations as a consultant with Accenture. Chandni holds a Master’s in Environmental Science from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a dual Bachelor of Arts in English and Economics from Cornell University.

Jon has been with the Network for Landscape Conservation since 2016 and has filled various roles, including managing the Catalyst Fund through its five (and counting) years of grantmaking and peer learning. He brings nearly 20 years of experience in working to advance collaborative landscape conservation and stewardship. Before joining the Network, he coordinated the South Mountain Partnership, a regional landscape conservation initiative in south-central Pennsylvania. He spent three years on the staff of the Boston-based Kendall Foundation. He is also a senior fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program. A graduate of Middlebury College and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Jon lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and their two little ones. Too much of his work is done in front of a computer, and he embraces any opportunity to get away from a screen—especially if the escape is on two wheels or skis when the snow is good.

Jim Levitt is a co-founder and the director of the ILCN, based at the Lincoln Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. In addition, he holds ongoing fellowships at the Harvard Forest, Harvard University and at Highstead, a non-profit advancing land conservation in New England.

Levitt focuses on landmark innovations in the field of land and biodiversity conservation, both present-day and historic, that are characterized by five traits: novelty and creativity in conception, strategic significance, measurable effectiveness, international transferability, and the ability to endure. Levitt has written and edited dozens of articles and four books on land and biodiversity conservation. Among his current efforts, Levitt is advising colleagues in Chile on the expansion of private land conservation initiatives and enabling legal frameworks in that nation. He is also engaged in an effort to link land conservation innovators at universities, colleges and independent research institutions around the globe. Levitt is a graduate of Yale College and the Yale School of Management (Yale SOM).