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Ruth Metzel (she/her)

Director of Prizes

As a tropical ecologist and forester, Ruth Metzel has worked to promote global climate solutions for over 15 years. She has led ecological restoration efforts around the world to realize the massive potential of natural climate solutions, while also working to evaluate and nurture exciting new ideas to reduce or store emissions more broadly. Before joining the Global Warming Mitigation Project full time, Ruth served as the first Global Restoration Lead for Conservation International, expanding restoration across the world through two major collaborative 20-country multi-sector project portfolios. Before that, Ruth worked for over a decade in Panama to restore tropical dry forests as the Executive Director and co-founder of the Fundación Pro Eco Azuero.  Throughout that time Ruth worked with a diversity of stakeholders ranging from local communities to national authorities and international donors to inspire action on environmental education, sustainable land management, habitat restoration, and reforestation. She has worked with UNEP-DTU, CGIAR, Drawdown, and The Forests Dialogue. Ruth holds a Bachelor’s in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Princeton, and Master of Forestry, and an MBA from Yale. She is currently a board member of Pro Eco Azuero, a member of the International Society for Tropical Foresters, and a National Geographic Explorer. 

Ruth's involvement with GWMP started when she joined the inaugural Keeling Curve Prize Analyst Team in 2018. As Director of Prizes, she expands GWMP's prize offerings and builds collaborations with key partners.