Helen Gichohi is the immediate past Ambassador for Conservation in Africa for Fauna and Flora International where she serves on a part time basis until December 2023. She joined FFI from Equity Group Foundation where she had served as managing director from 2012 to 2017. Prior to that, she spent 11 years with the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), where she served the first AWF President from 2007 to 2012.
She joined as the first director of the African Heartlands Program in 2001 rising to become the Vice President for Programs in February 2002. She led the expansion of AWF’s program in Africa as well as the move of the organization’s headquarters from Washington, DC to Nairobi. Before joining AWF Helen served as the managing director of the African Conservation Centre. Helen has received numerous honours, including three presidential awards, the Order of Grand Warrior and two Moran of the Order of Burning Spear for her distinguished service to conservation and development in Kenya.
She holds a doctorate in ecology from the University of Leicester in the UK, a Master of Science in Biology of Conservation from the University of Nairobi, and a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from Kenyatta University. She currently serves on the boards of Olpejeta Conservancy, Nawiri Group, Equity Group Holdings Limited and Bamburi PLC and the Advisory Boards of Liz Claiborne and Art Ortenberg Foundation and Mpala Research Centre. She is a Yale School of Forestry Dorothy McCluskey Fellow as well as CATTO Global Environmental Fellow of the Aspen Institute in Washington DC.
Helen Gichohi is the immediate past Ambassador for Conservation in Africa for Fauna and Flora International where she serves on a part time basis until December 2023. She joined FFI from Equity Group Foundation where she had served as managing director from 2012 to 2017. Prior to that, she spent 11 years with the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), where she served the first AWF President from 2007 to 2012.
She joined as the first director of the African Heartlands Program in 2001 rising to become the Vice President for Programs in February 2002. She led the expansion of AWF’s program in Africa as well as the move of the organization’s headquarters from Washington, DC to Nairobi. Before joining AWF Helen served as the managing director of the African Conservation Centre. Helen has received numerous honours, including three presidential awards, the Order of Grand Warrior and two Moran of the Order of Burning Spear for her distinguished service to conservation and development in Kenya.
She holds a doctorate in ecology from the University of Leicester in the UK, a Master of Science in Biology of Conservation from the University of Nairobi, and a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from Kenyatta University. She currently serves on the boards of Olpejeta Conservancy, Nawiri Group, Equity Group Holdings Limited and Bamburi PLC and the Advisory Boards of Liz Claiborne and Art Ortenberg Foundation and Mpala Research Centre. She is a Yale School of Forestry Dorothy McCluskey Fellow as well as CATTO Global Environmental Fellow of the Aspen Institute in Washington DC.
