In a nutshell:
- Dr. Allendorf has been working with communities for nearly 30 years
- She has been a board member for 10 years, so she understands our organization and is deeply committed to it
- She was a colleague of our founder (Rob Horwich) before he passed away
We are pleased to announce our new Executive Director, Dr. Teri Allendorf. During her time as a board member, her passion and expertise for community-based conservation have been invaluable to the organization. She has spent her career developing the capacity of NGOs and communities to design and implement biodiversity conservation projects.
Here’s a letter from Teri. Join us in welcoming her!
Dear Community Conservation friends,
I am excited and honored to take on the role of Executive Director. I have been a board member since 2011 and I have been the board president for the past three years. Since last spring, I have also served as acting director.
Times spent with communities, talking with people about their lives, hopes, and perceptions of biodiversity are among the happiest moments of my life. I have spent nearly 30 years supporting communities to conserve biodiversity in many countries around the world, including Guatemala, Guyana, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, India, China, Nepal, and Myanmar. I have been lucky to do that work in many roles as a researcher, teacher, consultant, and practitioner.
We are now four years past losing our founder, Rob Horwich, and his passion and heart continue to beat strongly through our programs. We are supporting communities to conserve biodiversity in Nepal and Myanmar and we are now expanding to new communities in Malaysia. We will support partners in these countries to be leaders of community conservation at national and regional levels.
The main reason I came to work with Community Conservation 10 years ago was that Rob and I had a shared understanding that communities value biodiversity. They want to conserve it for many reasons – a diversity of species in their forests, a healthy climate, cleaner and more plentiful water resources, and sustainable extraction.
Our job is not to convince people of the value of biodiversity. Our job is to support them to turn their values into conservation action. CC builds community conservation from the ground up by helping communities manage and monitor forests, grasslands, waters, and local species.
We appreciate your support of these communities – together we are saving biodiversity, one village at a time.
Thank you for supporting our vision!
Teri Allendorf, PhD
Executive Director
Community Conservation Inc.
With Khine Khine Swe, Executive Director of Friends of Wildlife, Myanmar 2019. 
Visiting a potential project site, Borneo, Malaysia 2020. 
Tiger monitoring training, (CC Founder Rob Horwich also pictured), Meghauli Village, Nepal 2012. 
Conducting study on livelihoods and governance for WWF, Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal 2016. 
Teri and her family, USAID AAAS Fellow with Biodiversity Team, Petén, Guatemala 2001. 
With park team cutting down invasive pine tree species, USAID biodiversity assessment, Kitulo National Park, Tanzania 2017. 
Initial stages of conservation corridor project with Dr. Rob Horwich, southeastern Nepal 2013. 
With a women’s community forest group in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal 2008. 
Chatthin Wildlife Sanctuary, Myanmar 2005. 
With Community-Based Anti-Poaching Unit in Amaltari Village, Chitwan National Park Buffer Zone, Nepal 2014. 
Visiting community conservation area for Himalayan goral (Nemorhedus goral) supported by WWF as part of USAID consultancy, Nepal 2015. 
Meeting with monk to support a conservation project, Chatthin Wildlife Sanctuary, Myanmar 2007. 
Conducting PhD research in Surkhet, Nepal 1995. 
With Southwest Forestry University faculty and Jian Mei Yang, co-collaborator on research about sacred forests and park-people relationships, Yunan China 2007. 
With Laxmi, friend from Karmela Village, Bardia National Park Project Buffer Zone, Nepal 2012. 
Tiger training with Bhim Gurung of Nepal Tiger Trust, Madi Valley, Chitwan National Park, Nepal 2011. 
Annapurna Conservation Area, USAID consultancy, Nepal 2015.