During her time at the University of Michigan, Claire Poelking studied abroad through the School for Field Studies program in Tanzania and Kenya in 2012. This experience was one of the first times Claire had been exposed to the full effects of conservation. She saw the proximity and connection the local communities had with wildlife and protected areas. “Conservation efforts needed to work with people, needed to bring all stakeholders, especially the most vulnerable, into decision making processes and provide opportunities to make conservation work for them and their way of life.”

After Claire graduated, she kept this dedication to conservation and lifting up vulnerable communities at the center of her career path. Currently, Claire works in the field of conservation philanthropy where she oversees the grant-making to nonprofits in the Great Lakes of East Africa, Greater Mekong Basin in Southeast Asia, and the Tropical Andes of South America regions. She credits SEAS with the critical thinking skills that she is able to apply to her research, grant-making, and collaboration with partner organizations. Throughout all of these steps she is assessing the situations with a “critical eye focused on environmental justice” and supporting people within these local communities.

Claire is also the co-chair of the Funder Learning Community on Women and the Environment. Here, she supports peer-to-peer learning and exchange for philanthropic professionals interested in the connections between women’s rights and environmental justice. The learning community aims to use their “influence and resources in order to more effectively and robustly  fund and lift-up these two groups because they have historically been underrepresented. Claire dedicates her time at the Funder Learning Community in hopes to better fund women-led and -serving efforts focused on conservation, climate action, environmental defense, and sustainable livelihoods. By dedicating her life to environmental-justice centered conservation, Claire hopes to create a more equitable and sustainable world.