Niquole Esters
Niquole Esters is an environmental conservationist with a passion for the oceans and geopolitics. With a background in international relations, governance, and policy, she works in the space between sustainable natural resource management, conservation, and economic development to protect important ecosystems and the services they provide. Niquole has spent more than 15 years working around the world with Conservation International (CI), specializing in program design and strategy, program management, and fundraising related to oceans and coasts. From 2009-2019 she worked with CI’s Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) Program, taking over as Director of the program from 2013-2019. CI’s CTI Program supports the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security, a regional initiative between Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste to sustainably manage the global epicenter of marine biodiversity.
After more than 10 years on the technical and programmatic side of the environmental sector Niquole decided to learn a different skill set and began a new role as a Senior Director with CI's Major Gifts Development team in 2019. Under the new role Niquole has expanded into providing private fundraising support to the more than 30 countries where Conservation International and its partners operate, from the forests and mountain tops to the coasts and deep ocean.
Her personal passion is to expose more people of color to nature, building the next generation of environmental stewards and ensuring equality and equity in global conservation efforts. In her current role she is the Co-Lead of CI’s Development DEI Strategy which focuses on promoting inclusivity and diversity across environmental philanthropy as part of a broader reimagining of conservation. Niquole received her B.A. from Washington and Lee University and her M.A. in Geopolitics, Territory and Security from King’s College London. She lives in Oakland, California with a lot of house plants.