Dr. Eva Garen

Biography

Eva Garen has spent 25 years focused on socio-cultural and political aspects of conservation and development in the tropics. She became the Director of Yale's Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative (ELTI) in 2012, after serving as a technical advisor on social aspects of REDD+ at Conservation International's Science Knowledge Division. Garen has also worked on social safeguards for REDD+ as an AAAS Science Technology Policy Fellow with USAID’s Forestry and Biodiversity Teams in Washington D.C. Her postdoctoral research at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama involved analyzing the interactions of cattle ranchers and smallholder farmers in creating practices that protect native trees and forests, catalyzing land restoration in the region. Garen completed her Master of Environmental Science and Ph.D. at the Yale School of the Environment, concentrating on social and political ecology.

Research Interests