Laurel A. Neme, Ph.D., is an international consultant specializing in natural resource management. She has worked in dozens of countries around the world (including Botswana, Mali, Tanzania and Switzerland), helped build knowledge-sharing networks of natural resource professionals in Africa for the U.S. Agency for International Development, overseen billions of dollars of multilateral development bank investments and improved their environmental and social impacts for the US Treasury Department, assisted dozens of national and international environmental organizations, and dedicated herself to improving the natural environment in her own community.  She has written for The Nature Conservancy, Environmental Defense, and Rainforest Action Network, among others. She lives in northern Vermont with her husband and son.