Dr. Avecita Chicchón has over 30 years of experience in the environmental field. As current Program Director of the Andes-Amazon Initiative at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, she works to achieve the consolidation of protected areas and indigenous lands while addressing drivers of habitat change across the Amazon Basin.

Throughout her career, Avecita has helped to bring a rigorous social science perspective to the forefront of conservation theory and practice. Her contributions have resulted in the creation and effective management of several conservation areas supported by local stakeholders, particularly in Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Cuba.

Before joining Moore, Avecita served as the Executive Director of the Latin America and Caribbean Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society, leading the organization’s work in 15 countries. As Program Officer for the MacArthur Foundation, she developed strategies and managed high impact grant-making portfolios in the Tropical Andes and the Caribbean. In the 1990s, Avecita worked for Conservation International as its first Country Director in Peru. She studied at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and University of Cincinnati, and she holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from University of Florida. In 2004, she received a Doctor Honoris Causa degree from the Universidad de la Amazonía Peruana (UNAP), and in 2017 a Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Florida.