Angela Yang

Angela Yang is a veteran conservationist, with decades of boots-on-the-ground field and management experience, across five continents.  She has lived and worked in Cambodia, Kenya, and the United Kingdom, working with international NGOs, including the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Zoological Society of London, and Rainforest Trust, and as a consultant for local NGOs in Africa. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Canada, Angela completed her BSc. in wildlife management at the University of British Columbia and her MSc. in Biodiversity, Wildlife and Ecosystem Health at the University of Edinburgh. Her interests range from sustainable landscape management to the illegal wildlife trade, and ultimately, the cross-disciplinary challenges that plague conservation. She spent almost a decade with the WCS Field Veterinary Program and Global Health Program in wildlife health research before expanding into studying the social, cultural, and economic aspects of conservation.  After living in Southeast Asia, Angela realized the immensity of the human pressures on natural resources and the critical need to find viable resolutions.  She went on to complete her thesis analyzing the socioeconomic impacts of marine conservation in East Africa. Through this work, she was able to understand the social and gender inequalities that lead to the inequities underpinning conservation challenges, an area that continues to be a focus. Angela is a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and has authored or co-authored a number of publications, including a book chapter entitled, “Bridging the Gap between Conservation and Health”, and most recently an editorial that examines the impacts of COVID-19 on protected and conserved areas. In 2021, Angela joined the new Global Center for Species Survival, a partnership between IUCN and the Indianapolis Zoo.  Working in a team of seven taxonomic experts, she coordinated the efforts of the mammal Specialist Groups to strengthen the efforts of the IUCN in species conservation. She is now Director of International Field Conservation at the Denver Zoological Foundation in Denver, CO.