Geri Unger

Geri Unger has extensive program management experience in environmental and conservation biology, finance of green infrastructure, ecological restoration, urban youth agricultural programs and community education. She is currently involved in consulting projects in her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. These projects include creating a proposal for a hands-on science center exhibit on resilience, building a planning tool for legacy cities to preserve important open space in light of potential redevelopment and designing an urban shrimp farm that will support sustainable seafood, urban redevelopment and employ adults with disabilities in Cleveland.

The co-founder of TerrAqua Environmental Science and Policy LLC, Geri has consulted for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Pew Charitable Trusts, Heinz Endowments, George Gund Foundation, New Israel Fund, the New England Aquarium, Chicago Zoological Society and other organizations. She has served as executive director of the Society for Conservation Biology, a global community of conservation professionals whose mission is to advance the science and practice of conserving the Earth’s biological diversity.

She is the co-principle investigator of the Next Generation Careers in Environmental Biology under a grant from the National Science Foundation, focusing on diversity in undergraduates in ecological fields and placing them in entry level positions. Previously, Geri was vice president for education and research at the Cleveland Botanical Garden, where she managed a high school urban farming work-study program and initiated the ecosystems services on vacant urban property research program throughout the Great Lakes Basin. Geri serves on the board of the Friends of Israel’s Environment, the external board for Israel Union for Environmental Defense, the University of Maryland University College’s Environmental Management Program and as an associate editor for Science Advances, an online journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

She has taught high school and university ecology and environmental science and was co-executive director of the Jerusalem Science Centre. She received an MS in environmental biology from Hebrew University.