John Beavers

John Beavers is the President of Amazon Conservation and is responsible for its overall leadership and management. John has spent his career focused on conservation in Latin America ranging from on-the-ground conservation in the Maya Forest of Guatemala, Belize and Mexico to strengthening conservation organizations across Latin America. Prior to starting with Amazon Conservation in 2019, he spent seven years leading Audubon's international conservation efforts to protect key bird habitats and biodiversity in Latin America and the Caribbean. While there, he launched Audubon’s first international conservation strategy to guide Audubon's efforts outside of the United States, and developed and led innovative projects, including a $2.6 million bird-based-tourism partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and a regional climate plan that linked conservation organizations across 12 countries. Previously, he worked for seventeen years with The Nature Conservancy in Latin America, and lived in Guatemala where he led the Conservancy’s Guatemala and Central America Programs and helped lead national level conservation finance and policy actions, including a $24.4M debt-swap between the Guatemalan and US Governments. John has a Master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in Natural Resource Economics and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from Rutgers University.

Ana Folhadella

Ana is a Brazilian communicator and fundraiser. As the Philanthropy and Communications Director, she helps share the stories of the people of the Amazon internationally and raises millions to protect the world's most important forest. Ana designs fundraising and external communications strategies for the organization and oversees their implementation. Previous to joining Amazon Conservation in 2016, Ana worked for six years in the areas of program management, volunteer management, marketing, and fundraising with nonprofits in Michigan and Illinois. Ana has studied and volunteered abroad with several NGOs implementing community-based conservation projects in Chile and Brazil, including personally planting over 1,000 trees to help reforest the Atlantic Forest. She has a Bachelor's in International Studies from the University of Michigan and a Master's in Public Administration from Oakland University.

Blaise Bodin

Blaise is our Director of Strategy and Policy based in the Amazon region. He is responsible for the development of partnerships with civil society and governmental actors, as well as helping develop our strategy for scaling Amazon Conservation’s actions across the region. Blaise has spent his career working on the conservation and restoration of tropical forests for their climate and biodiversity benefits. Prior to joining Amazon Conservation, he worked on REDD+ capacity-building in the Congo Basin and financing in Latin America, most recently leading the LEAF coalition’s engagement with the government of Ecuador. Previously, he has also worked with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity on international forest ecosystem restoration programs. Blaise has a MSc in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford, as well as a Masters in Public International Law and an undergraduate law degree from the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas.

Meryl Cohen

Meryl leads the program strategy for the Alliance and supports the management of projects in Peru and Bolivia. She is in charge of developing grant proposals and managing relationships with foundations, governments, and other grant makers. Prior to starting with Amazon Conservation in 2019, Meryl developed and implemented rights-based conservation strategies across the Amazon and Mesoamerica with Forest Trends and the Rights and Resources Initiative. Prior to that, she supported Rapid Assessment Projects in Peru to quantify species diversity with Conservation International. Meryl has a Master’s degree in International Development and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh.

Maria Villamar

Maria Isabel Villamar is the Director of Finance at Amazon Conservation, where she leads accounting, budgeting, and all financial reporting and planning in the U.S. and South America. Serving on the leadership team, her responsibilities extend beyond financial management to encompass talent acquisition, retention, and fostering a team-oriented culture committed to advancing the organization's mission. Before joining Amazon Conservation, Maria Isabel gained valuable international experience in finance and operations at various nonprofit organizations and within the private sector in the New York and Washington D.C. markets. She is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with a Bachelor of Science from Queens College. When she isn’t making Amazon Conservation a great workplace, she enjoys traveling, long walks, and spending time with her daughter.

Matt Finer

For the past two decades, Matt has been dedicated to investigating threats to the Amazon. As part of this effort, he has been especially focused on advancing the dynamic field of real-time, satellite based threats monitoring from deforestation and fires. Following years of Amazon-based work, Matt came aboard Amazon Conservation in 2013, and in 2015 launched MAAP (Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project) as the organization's dedicated real-time monitoring program. Under his leadership, MAAP has published over 130 high-impact public reports on critical topics including Amazon fires, illegal gold mining, illegal logging, expansion of the agricultural frontier, and road construction. He also works closely with colleagues in Amazonian countries to convert the technical findings into effective policy action. Matt received his Ph.D. from the School of Biological Sciences at Washington State University in 2003 and got his start as an undergrad in the Ecology and Evolution department at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to joining Amazon Conservation, he was a Project Scientist for the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) Sustainable Loreto project and Staff Ecologist at Save America’s Forests.

Andrés Santana

Andrés is our Senior Manager and contributes to enhancing real-time deforestation monitoring, strengthening policy frameworks, and building capacity among local stakeholders to address the environmental and social impacts of illegal deforestation. He holds a master's in rural development from Javeriana University and two bachelor's from the Rosario University in Colombia, one in Economics and one in Finance and International Trade. He has worked for the Norwegian, Dutch and Brazilian embassies in Bogotá and has extensive experience related to international cooperation and grant management with a focus in forest conservation, rural development, and the agri-food sector. He is fluent in Spanish, English and Portuguese, and in his free time he enjoys travelling, learning languages and getting to know different cultures.

Blair Scott

Blair provides programmatic support for Amazon Conservation's conservation programs in Peru and Bolivia, assisting with grant development and management. Prior to working with Amazon Conservation, Blair worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as the program coordinator for the Middle East Program. She has also worked in the democracy and governance space as a project assistant with the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and as an intern with PartnersGlobal. She received her BA in International Studies and History and minors in Spanish and Environment from the University of Michigan.

Priscila Steffen

Priscila is a Brazilian journalist and environmental communicator. At Amazon Conservation, she creates communication strategies, leads campaigns, and connects with partners and communities across Latin America and the U.S. Her passion is sharing powerful stories from the Amazon region, acting as a bridge to amplify the voices from the Amazon and helping highlight the impact of our mission around the world. Before joining Amazon Conservation, Priscila worked with the U.S. Forest Service (Brazil and Latin America programs) and was the Senior Communications Manager at Conservation International Brazil, where she led regional campaigns, boosted brand awareness, and supported fundraising efforts. She also spent years as a reporter and scriptwriter in Brazilian media, working with the Globo Ecologia TV Program, Canal Futura, and O Eco website.

Heather Hutchison

Heather provides development support for Amazon Conservation’s fundraising campaigns and manages the organization’s giving programs and donation processing. Prior to joining Amazon Conservation, Heather coordinated fundraising and events for Conservation Northwest in Seattle, WA and international volunteer programs in community development for Fundación Ecuador Volunteer in Quito, Ecuador. She holds a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service with Certificates in International Development and Latin American Studies, as well as a M.S. in Socio-Environmental Studies from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Ecuador (FLACSO-Ecuador).

Nadia Mamani Chavez

Nadia provides technical support for Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP). She conducts real-time monitoring analysis and identifies the drivers, patterns, hotspots and deforestation trends across the Amazon region using remote sensing and GIS techniques at a regional, national and local landscape scale. Previous to working with Amazon Conservation, she worked in environmental conservation and sustainable natural resources management with government and nonprofits organizations in Peru. Nadia has collaborated in the implementation of land restoration activities in indigenous communities and community-based conservation projects in Madre de Dios. She received her BA in Forest and Environmental Engineering from the National Amazonian University of Madre de Dios and pursues a Master’s degree in Climate Change and Sustainable Development from National University of San Antonio Abad of Cusco.

Alina Ariñez

Alina provides technical support for Amazon Conservation's Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP). She performs near real-time monitoring of deforestation and identifies critical points in the Amazon region through the use of remote sensors and GIS tools. Before, she worked and still coordinates with our sister organization, ACEAA of Bolivia, in the monitoring of deforestation and fire in different Protected Areas and Indigenous Territories. She has also worked in various institutions for the Bolivian government, applying her knowledge of GIS and Remote Sensing. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Geographic Engineering from the Universidad Mayor de San Andres, in La Paz Bolivia, as well as the Specialization in Remote Sensing and GIS from INPE in Brazil and the Specialization in Remote Sensing Applied to Territorial Information at the Polytechnic University of Madrid.

Hebert Castillo

Hebert provides technical support for Amazon Conservation's Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Program (MAAP) team by helping employ near real-time monitoring of deforestation and identify critical points in the Amazon region through the use of remote sensors and GIS tools. Before Amazon Conservation, he worked with Conservation International - Peru as a Remote Sensing Coordinator for 4 years, providing reports about deforestation monitoring in protected areas and indigenous territories located in the Alto Mayo basin North of Peru. Hebert earned a degree in GIS and Remote Sensing specialization at the University of Buenos Aires and is currently in the process of obtaining a master's degree in Climate Change and Sustainable Development at National University of San Antonio Abad of Cuzco.

Pamela Adkins

Pamela Adkins supports the finance department with financial and accounting transactions, budget preparation, financial reports, grants, audits, and other duties. Pamela is originally from Lima, Peru. She has more than fourteen years of experience working in finance and management for the federal government of Peru and experience working with non-profit organizations in the United States. Pamela holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the National University of San Marcos in Lima, Peru, and is pursuing an accounting degree at the University of Maryland Global Campus. In her free time, she enjoys spending time outdoors with her family.

Lauren deVilla

Lauren brings Amazon Conservation's voice to life by running all of our social media accounts, coordinating digital content, developing campaign strategies, and more! She graduated from James Madison University in 2021 with a BA in Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communications, and a double minor in Spanish and Creative Writing. Before joining our team, Lauren interned with various marketing departments in both nonprofit and other organizations. Throughout her life, she has lived in 5 different countries and continues to show her appreciation for cultures, customs, and languages through different modes of communication.

Liam Aranda

Liam assists with programmatic conservation work by Amazon Conservation in Peru and Bolivia with a focus on grants and project management. Before joining Amazon Conservation, Liam taught English at the Federal University of Acre, Brazil on a Fulbright English Teaching grant and helped research Washington D.C.’s Temporary Migrant Housing Centers for Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of International Migration. Liam has a Master’s in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a Bachelor’s in International Studies and History from Northwestern University.

Júlia Perét

Júlia Péret is a Research Assistant at Amazon Conservation, based in Brazil. She researches national legislative and policy initiatives developed by the nine Amazonian countries aimed at preventing deforestation caused by gold mining, with particular attention to the protection of Indigenous territories and the promotion of sustainable environmental governance. Her work supports our broader efforts to strengthen environmental protections across the Amazon through legal analysis, research, and stakeholder engagement. Júlia holds a Master’s in Law from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil), a Master’s in Transnational Law and Digital Innovation from the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (Spain), as well as two bachelor’s degrees—one in Law and another in State Science. She is currently pursuing a PhD in International Law at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, where her research investigates the European Union’s cooperation with Brazil in the protection of the Amazon rainforest.