Congratulations to Environmental Science, Policy, and Management PhD student Isabela Tapia Jaramillo on being selected as a 2025 fellowship recipient by the WWF Russell E. Train Education for Nature program.
Run by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Education for Nature program recognizes outstanding emerging scientists and conservation leaders by providing fellowships to students pursuing graduate studies in environmental and conservation fields. This year’s cohort includes 70 fellows and scholars from 23 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, each dedicated to addressing urgent global biodiversity and sustainability challenges.
Tapia was selected as one of 12 recipients of the Fonseca Leadership Program Fellowship, which provides financial support for graduate studies in education and research addressing critical conservation challenges in Latin America. A conservation biologist born and raised in the Galápagos Islands (Ecuador), Tapia grew up surrounded by the ecosystems and species she now studies as a scientist. Her fellowship will support her PhD research to co-create a biocultural framework for the conservation of the Galápagos giant tortoises, keystone species that function as ecosystem engineers across the archipelago and hold deep cultural significance for Galapagueños.
Tapia brings a diverse professional background rooted in place-based conservation in the Galápagos, with experience spanning field research, applied data analysis, and conservation practice. Her current work integrates conservation science, data analysis, environmental justice, and community-based research to address complex challenges, including human-wildlife conflict, illegal fishing, invasive species, and the monitoring of keystone and critically endangered species.
Before joining the lab of ESPM Assistant Professor Alejandra Echeverri, Tapia completed a Master’s degree in biodiversity conservation at the University of Southampton in England. She also worked as a research assistant at the Charles Darwin Foundation, consulted for organizations such as WildAid and Galápagos National Park, and served as a marine conservation officer at Conservation Foundation Jocotoco. Through her family-run environmental consultancy, Biodiversa Consultores, she continues to support locally led conservation and natural resource management initiatives.
Together, these experiences and her interdisciplinary approach to conservation position Tapia among a new generation of conservation leaders from Latin America committed to locally grounded, community-centered science that advances both biodiversity conservation and human well-being.
Learn more about the Education for Nature program on the WWF website.
