Team

Salman Hussain

Salman Hussain

TEEB Coordinator

Salman Hussain is the TEEB Coordinator and the Head a.i. of the for Ecosystem Services Economics Unit (ESEU) in UNEP. The Unit currently has 18 staff and consultants working on the core TEEB-ESEU mandate, i.e. shifting economic decision-making through recognizing, demonstrating and capturing the values of nature. The three main programmatic areas of work are on TEEB for Agriculture and Food (TEEBAgriFood), natural capital accounting through the application of SEEA Ecosystem Accounting, and a new work area on the interface between terrestrial and coastal ecosystems – TEEB4Coasts. Salman is the UNEP focal point for Action Track 3 in the Food Systems Summit on ‘Nature-positive food production’ and also co-leads the UNEP Task Team on food systems. Salman was awarded his PhD in Ecological Economics from the University of Edinburgh; his PhD focused on the economics of the ‘greening’ of industry, with a specific emphasis on eco-innovations and eco-labelling. Prior to joining UNEP in 2014 Salman was a researcher and the Programme Director of the Masters in Ecological Economics in the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh.

Sarah Cheroben

Sarah Cheroben

Programme Management Assistant

Sarah Cheroben has over 10 years of work experience in environmental field having been engaged in different aspects of programme design, implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation. She has experience conducting Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and Environmental Audits (EAs) having worked with the private sector and interned with Kenya’s national government Ministry of Environment and Mineral resources and the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA-Kenya).

She joined UN family as a National United Nations Volunteer in 2010 where she worked for the UN Environment Congo Basin Project “The Mayombe Transboundary project” within the Terrestrial Unit, Ecosystem Division. Her work was later expanded to cover Great Apes Survival Partnership and EU funded Mau Forest Projects. Her work also included support in the implementation of programmes such as Climate Change Adaptation, GEF Climate Change Enabling Activities and the UN REDD.

Sarah holds a master’s degree in Environmental Science (Agroforestry and Rural Development) and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Kenyatta University, Kenya.

Rebeca Leonard

Rebeca Leonard

Technical Consultant

Rebeca Leonard joined the TEEB team in September 2019 and is based at the UNEP Regional Office for the Asia Pacific to support the TEEB programme implementation in Thailand and Malaysia. Rebeca is a law graduate with a postgraduate degree in Environment and Development with twenty years professional experience in development policy research and analysis. Her research work has centred on analysis of approaches for promoting sustainable livelihoods of low income communities in developing countries, focusing on agrarian reform and community and smallholder tenure of land and natural resources, and more recently on agri-food policy and initiatives to support men and women small-scale farmers and food producers, and measures to monitor and improve food safety. She has worked with various local and international NGOs in support of community based organisations, as well as bilateral and multilateral agencies in the South East Asia region, including Myanmar, Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand.

 

Mónica López

Mónica López

Programme Officer

Mónica López has been working at UN Environment in Nairobi, Kenya for the past two years, managing projects on mainstreaming, natural capital accounting and ecosystem service valuation. Previously at UN Environment, she worked at the joint UN Development Programme- UN Environment Poverty Environment Initiative as Regional Advisor in the Africa Region. where she liaised directly with the country teams to develop and mainstream tools for sustainability and poverty reduction into national development planning.

Prior to the UN, she worked on Environmental and Food Security Framework Contracts for the European Commission and before that she worked mainly on community based natural resource management in Mozambique and various Latin American countries and pursued her postgraduate research on community participatory tools and education for sustainability. She holds a master’s degree in foreign cooperation.

Edwina Matano

Edwina Matano

Programme Management Assistant

Edwina joins the unit as a Programme Management Assistant. She has over eight years of experience in the fields of programme management, finance, budget and administration and prior to joining the team, she worked in various UN offices, that is the UNEP Africa Office as a Finance and Budget Assistant, the Ecosystems Division under the Nairobi Convention Secretariat as a Programme Management Assistant and in UNON as a Treasury assistant. Before joining the UN, Edwina worked in the private sector providing support in the fields of finance, budget and administration.

Edwina holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree, Finance major and is currently pursuing her MBA at the University of Nairobi. While not working, Edwina enjoys being creative and planning for the next adventure with her family.

Lucy Cockerell

Lucy Cockerell

Programme Affairs Intern

Lucy Cockerell joined ESE-TEEB as an intern in September 2019. At TEEB, her role is to support the implementation of TEEB project activities by conducting research, assisting with the organisation of meetings and outreach events as well as supporting communication activities. She holds an MSc in Environment, Politics and Society from University College London (UCL) and a BSc in Economics, Business Administration and CSR from Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki. Lucy has international experience in conservation, CSR, working for an environmental NGO and volunteering in developing countries with wildlife conservation and environmental management. She also has experience in conducting and maintaining high-quality research projects, writing scientific reports and is presently publishing her MSc thesis in Marine Policy.

William Speller

William Speller

Programme Officer

Will joined the TEEB Office in November 2018 to work on the natural capital accounting and valuation of ecosystem services and the implementation of the TEEB for Agriculture and Food projects. Will is a development and agricultural economist with a decade of experience in public policy, advising governments on national development and agricultural strategies, and environmental policy frameworks. Prior to joining UN Environment, he worked at the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the World Bank Group, the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Bank of England. Will holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Melbourne, a Master of Science in Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics, and a Master of Science in Environmental Management from University of London.

Khushboo Purshotam Ugandamal

Khushboo Purshotam Ugandamal

Finance and Program Assistant

Khushboo has joined the unit as a Finance and Program assistant. Prior to joining the ESE Unit, Khush worked as a Finance assistant for the Finance Management unit in Ecosystem Division.

She started her UN career as an Intern at the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) in 2016 and later joined as a UNV in September 2017. Before she joined the UN, she worked at the private sector as a Finance and Administrative Assistant.

She received her BA in International business with a concentration in Finance and she is currently pursuing her master’s in business administration at the United States International University- Africa. Outside of work, Khush enjoys travelling and meeting people from different cultures.

Jay van Amstel

Jay van Amstel

Consultant

Jay is an agronomist engineer with ten years of experience working with projects of sustainable agriculture for social inclusion in Brazil, France, Uganda, Thailand and India. Since 2020, he joined the TEEBAgriFood team, to collaborate in two work streams in Brazil, Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture, and Low Carbon Agriculture, helping to coordinate research with Ministries, research partners and national institutions.

He holds a Master of Social Science in Agriculture, Development and Society, carrying out different research on agricultural innovations upon participatory projects in urban vulnerable conditions. Currently, in his PhD research, he is mapping the policy-science interface around agriculture and environmental conservation in Brazil.

Jacob Salcone

Jacob Salcone

Programme Officer

Jacob Salcone joined TEEB in April 2018. As a technical consultant, he helps governments and researchers use microeconomic tools to quantify and value the human benefits of ecosystems and biodiversity.

Jacob previously worked for IUCN, calculating the economic value of marine and coastal ecosystems to inform resource management decisions in Pacific Island countries. He holds an M.S. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from Colorado State University and a B.A. in International Sustainable Development from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is currently modelling the land-use change impacts of payment for ecosystem service programs in Mexico in pursuit of a PhD in Human Dimensions of Natural Resources from Colorado State University. He has conducted community development research in California and South America and helped rural communities in the Western US resolve water and sanitation problems.

Anna Hellge

Anna Hellge

Communications Specialist

Anna Hellge is joining TEEB as a Communications Specialist. She has previous experience as a Freelance Reporter for various German and international publications. Her focus as a Journalist has been on human resilience and solutions, instead of problems. She has also worked as a Communications Consultant with GIZ and in Public Information for UNHCR Ethiopia. Anna has lived, studied and worked in 9 countries. She has a BA degree in English Speaking Cultures and Religious Science from the University of Bremen, Germany and undertook a German Turkish Double Degree MA Programme in Transcultural Communication at Kadir Has University, Istanbul. Anna is passionate about storytelling – whether in written or visual form – and is eager to integrate a storytelling approach into her work with TEEB.

Past Members

Past Members

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Anita Beck, Nicolas Bertrand, Tomas Declercq, Mouhamed Diallo, Chloe Hill, Jasmin Hundorf, Evans Koech, Georgina Langdale, David Diaz Martin, Lena Mkwara, Edwin Onyach, Sharon Oseku-Frainier, Maria Paula, Helena Pinto, Anita Sandana, Mark Schauer, Marcio Verde Selva, Kavita Sharma, Ben Simmons, Dustin (Miller) Wenzel, Selome Tadesse-Worku, Simi Thambi, Camille Thoumyre, Naomi Young

Past Interns

Past Interns

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Chelsea Baldino, Francine Brondex, Luisa Sette Camara, Gabriella Cevallos, Jiyuan Chen, Alena Cierna, Dalton Conner, Tshala Gordon, Anna Heuberger, Anita Koralewicz, Celine Krebs, Sam McClendon, Marco Morettini, Gwenael Podesta, David Tyner

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