Meet the team
Meet the researchers, academic leads, and institutional partners from across the world contributing to the coalition’s work. Together, they bring interdisciplinary expertise and global perspectives to support collaborative research, knowledge exchange, and practical action towards a more nature-positive future.
Professor Carolyn Hogg
Project Co-Lead & Interdisciplinary Co-Lead (The University of Sydney)
Prof Hogg is the Professor of Biodiversity and Conservation with more than 30 years’ experience in biodiversity protection using the latest tools and technologies to inform policy and management actions. Prof Hogg worked in the conservation sector managing threatened species breeding and translocation programs prior to joining academia in 2016.
Professor Jill Robbie
Project Co-Lead & Legal Workstream Co-Lead (University of Glasgow)
Professor of Property and Natural Environment Law, Professor Jill Robbie is a leading scholar in property and environmental law, with a particular focus on how legal systems can support sustainable land use and biodiversity recovery. As Co-Lead of both the project and the Legal Workstream, she plays a key role in ensuring that the Nature Positive Coalition’s work is grounded in legal frameworks that are practical, inclusive, and adaptable across different jurisdictions. Prof Robbie’s involvement brings a critical legal lens to the project, helping to shape tools that are not just ecologically meaningful but also viable in real-world legal and policy contexts.
Professor Jacqueline Beggs
Ecology Co-Lead (University of Glasgow)
Professor Beggs is an ecologist and a passionate advocate for Aotearoa New Zealand’s unique biodiversity. She is the Co-Executive Director of Ngā Ara Whetū, the University of Auckland’s flagship research centre on Climate, Biodiversity and Society, and Director of the Centre for Biodiversity and Biosecurity. Her research addresses the impacts of invasive invertebrates and broader questions in landscape ecology. She co-leads the Ecology & Restoration theme, bringing deep expertise in ecology and collaborative work with land stewards.
Professor Chris Elphick
Ecology Workstream Co-Lead (University of Connecticut)
Ecology Workstream Co-Lead (University of Connecticut) – Professor Elphick is a conservation biologist, applied ecologist, and ornithologist. His research spans behavioural, population, community, and landscape ecology, with a focus on birds in tidal marshes and agricultural landscapes, species interactions in fragmented forests, avian extinctions, global insect declines, and synthesising conservation literature. He brings this broad expertise to co-leading the Ecology & Restoration theme.
Dr Catherine Price
Ecology Workstream Co-Lead (The University of Sydney)
Dr Price is a behavioural ecologist fascinated by how animals use sensory information to make decisions, particularly about what to eat and where to go. Her research aims to improve restoration techniques for threatened species by drawing on behavioural, sensory, and cognitive ecology. She conducts large-scale field experiments and collaborates with organic chemists, acoustic engineers, ecologists, and wildlife managers in Australia and internationally.
Associate Professor Eleanor Bruce
Nature Stewards Workstream Co-Lead (The University of Sydney)
Associate Professor Bruce’s research explores the geographical dimensions of coupled human–environment systems, with a focus on using spatial models to examine drivers of environmental change. She has led interdisciplinary projects across Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, applying geospatial technologies to monitor environmental change in collaboration with conservation authorities, government agencies, and UNESCO. Her experience working with local communities on water–energy–food security and sustainable livelihoods makes her an ideal co-lead for the Nature Stewards Workstream.
Associate Professor Bruce Burns
Nature Stewards Workstream Co-Lead (University of Auckland)
Associate Professor Burns is a plant ecologist whose research focuses on biodiversity, conservation, and ecological restoration in both natural and managed (rural and urban) ecosystems. He investigates vegetation change over time and the effects of disturbance on vegetation dynamics, working closely with landholders to generate knowledge critical for ecosystem management in an era of rapid environmental change.
Professor Rodrigo Arriagada
Financial Workstream Co-Lead (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile)
Professor Arriagada is an environmental and resource economist whose research focuses on evaluating the impacts of conservation policies, modelling land-use change, valuing ecosystem services, and exploring the intersection of environment and development.
Professor John Finch
Financial Workstream Co-Lead (University of Glasgow)
Professor Finch is a Professor of Marketing whose research focuses on market studies, applying science and technology studies approaches to understand how markets and their regulation shape economic exchanges. He brings this expertise to exploring market drivers for participation in nature-positive markets, as well as economic sociology and sustainability regulation.
Dr Britta Sjösted
Legal Workstream Co-lead (Lund University)
Senior Lecturer in Public International Law and Environmental law. Dr Sjöstedt focusses on environmental peacebuilding, protection of the environment in relation to armed conflict, the role of environmental defenders in fragile conflict areas and issues related to just transition and sustainable development. Currently, she is leading two large research projects, one on mapping the international legal frameworks for restoring and protecting the environment; and the other investigates the role of EU for a and just green transition and how instruments adopted by the EU comply with international law.
Professor Maria Armoudian
Social Workstream (Socio-politics) Co-Lead (University of Auckland)
Professor Armoudian is a scholar of politics and international relations, Director of the University of Auckland Sustainability Hub, and Co-Director of Ngā Ara Whetū, the Centre for Climate, Biodiversity and Society. She has published extensively on human rights, environmental politics, communication, and good governance. Professor Armoudian co-leads the Socio-political/Socio-economic theme, bringing her expertise in governance and policy to the leadership of the project’s socio-political dimensions.
Professor Nicholas Nwanyek Ngepah
Co-Lead of the Social Workstream (University of Johannesburg)
Professor of Economics at the University of Johannesburg, Prof Ngepah’s research focuses on poverty, inequality, inclusive growth, health economics, climate change, and sustainable development, using advanced econometric and policy analysis approaches. Within the Coalition, he leads the development of frameworks and empirical methods to assess how ecosystem restoration affects livelihoods, wellbeing, inequality, productivity, and public value, ensuring that Nature Positive strategies are also socioeconomically inclusive, credible, and beneficial to communities.
Professor Maria J.Santos
Interdisciplinary Co-Lead (University of Zurich)
Professor in Earth System Sciences, Professor Santos’ research asks questions around the co-evolution of social-ecological systems, a fundamental step to place Earth System Sciences in the context of the Anthropocene. Her approach is interdisciplinary, and aims at assessing drivers and impacts of the change in biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people, as well as assessing the interactions between social and ecological processes, by working with local communities, assessing their multidimensional livelihoods and whether nexus approaches are possible that deliver on biodiversity, water, food and climate security.
