Jessica Leas
Jessica Leas (she/her) is the Senior Director for Large Grant Capacity at Conservation International. Conservation International works in more than 70 countries and has protected more than 2.3 million square miles since 1987. She works directly with field staff to develop large projects to protect global forests and other ecosystem benefits for human well-being.
Over her 25 year career, Jessica has raised and stewarded more than US$1 billion for these efforts at various environmental organizations, such as ClimateWorks Foundation, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy and Defenders of Wildlife. Jessica has also worked on project implementation in Sri Lanka where she supported the transition to sustainable development with a local community development organization and with Global Green USA (Green Cross) in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, where she supported public outreach and environmental awareness surrounding weapons destruction facilities and facilitated environmental summer camps for victims of Chernobyl. Jessica was also a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan.