Environmental Science, Policy, and Management PhD student Isabela Tapia Jaramillo has been named a 2025 fellowship recipient by the WWF Russell E. Train Education for Nature program. The World Wildlife Fund’s initiative supports emerging scientists and conservation leaders pursuing graduate studies in environmental fields. This year, 70 fellows and scholars from 23 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean were selected.
Tapia is one of 12 recipients of the Fonseca Leadership Program Fellowship. This fellowship provides financial support to graduate students addressing conservation challenges in Latin America. Tapia, a conservation biologist from the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador, will use her fellowship to support research on a biocultural framework for conserving Galápagos giant tortoises.
Her background includes field research, data analysis, and conservation practice focused on place-based work in the Galápagos. She addresses issues such as human-wildlife conflict, illegal fishing, invasive species management, and monitoring endangered species through community-based research.
Before joining Assistant Professor Alejandra Echeverri’s lab at UC Berkeley Rausser College of Natural Resources, Tapia earned a Master’s degree in biodiversity conservation at the University of Southampton. She has worked as a research assistant at the Charles Darwin Foundation and consulted for organizations including WildAid and Galápagos National Park. Additionally, she served as a marine conservation officer with Conservation Foundation Jocotoco and continues to contribute to local initiatives through her family-run consultancy Biodiversa Consultores.
According to the press release: “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.”
More information about the Education for Nature program can be found on the WWF website.
