Emily Averna

Emily is the Associate Director for Land Restoration at the Bezos Earth Fund, where she develops strategies and builds partnerships to deliver climate benefits, economic growth, and biodiversity protection at scale. Together with the Managing Director of Nature Solutions, she manages the Earth Fund’s $1 billion landscape restoration portfolio. With an initial focus on Africa and the U.S., restoration efforts include planting trees on degraded landscapes, revitalizing grasslands, and integrating trees into farmland.

‍Before joining the Earth Fund, Emily spent nearly a decade at the World Resources Institute (WRI), working to advance global sustainable development. Most recently, Emily managed WRI’s contributions to the African Land Restoration Initiative, AFR100, which aims to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land across Africa by 2030. She worked with the African Union Development Agency in Johannesburg, South Africa, to secure political commitments and financing for large-scale restoration. Emily holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Washington University in St. Louis.