2024 Keynote Speakers
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2024 Keynote Speakers |
Beverly Wade
Ms. Beverly Wade is the Director of the Blue Bonds and Project for Finance Permanence Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister in Belize. She leads the implementation of the Blue Loan and Conservation Funding Agreements and the coordination of government and non-government actors and sectors in the delivery of key marine conservation targets and commitments. Beverly has over 25 years of experience with Blue Economy, Fisheries Management and Development, Marine Conservation and Protected Areas Management, Coral Reef Management, Sustainable Development, Integrated Coastal Management and Development and Public Policy and Institutional Development, Sustainable Financing, and Carbon Markets. Ms. Wade has been integral to the enactment of key policies for the sustainable use and development of the country’s marine and coastal resources in pursuit of the broader objectives and support of Government policies that support Belize’s natural resources-based economy.
Pam Longobardi
Pam lives and works in Atlanta as Regents’ Professor, Distinguished University Professor, and Professor of Art at Georgia State University. Pam Longobardi is a globally recognized conceptual artist and art activist using plastic, currencies, and fine art painting to communicate about global environmental issues. Her work was featured in the National Geographic documentary Gyre, and she’s been a repeat guest for the Weather Channel.
Employing anthropology, environmental research, and forensic cataloging, her work explores themes of consumer culture, environmental recklessness, and socio-political global conflict. Pam is a Distinguished Professor of Art at Georgia State University, is an artist in partnership with the Ionion Center for Art and Culture in Metaxata, Kefalonia, Greece, and is Oceanic Society’s Artist-In-Nature.
Dr. Marisa Tellez
Dr. Tellez is the founder of Crocodile Research Coalition International Union for Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission - Crocodile Specialist Group's sub-Regional Chair of Central America & the Caribbean.
Dr. Tellez is the founder and Executive Director for the Crocodile Research Coalition (CRC) a Belize-based nonprofit that seeks to preserve crocodiles and their environments throughout Central America and the Caribbean. A research trip to Belize in 2008 is what established her love for Belize. She returned to California to earn her PhD from UCLA and since then she has lit up the conservation world as a crocodilian expert and founder of CRC, an impactful women led conservation organization. She was recently appointed as the Vice Regional Chair for the IUCN/Species Survival Commission-Crocodile Specialist Group of Latin America. Doc Tellez, as she’s often called, has also been a guest expert for global outlets like Vice and Science Fridays.