SENIOR SCIENTIFIC EXECUTIVE & NON-PROFIT LEADER, Paula J. Ehrlich, DVM, PhD, is President & CEO of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, whose purpose is to inspire informed collective action to save the biosphere. Dr. Ehrlich pioneers innovation, leads strategic activities & fosters collaborations that support worldwide protection of biodiversity. She leads a diverse team of scientists, educators & communication leaders who share a moral conviction to act to protect biodiversity as one of humanity’s transcendent goals.Dr. Ehrlich is Co-Founder of the Half-Earth Project, the leading voice for E.O. Wilson’s Half-Earth call to protect half the land and sea in order to safeguard the bulk of biodiversity. The Half-Earth Project is playing a significant role in ensuring we leave no species behind through research that provides scientific leadership in service of a resilient planet, education that fosters an intergenerational commitment to stewardship of the Earth, and engagement of a global community that perceives & celebrates the inherent value of nature. She has led the development of the Half-Earth Project Map, raising over $20M to create a global, spatially-explicit, & taxonomically comprehensive map of species for public engagement and decision-making. Recent updates inform how well conserved places are protecting species and identify priorities for future conservation.Dr. Ehrlich is Founder of Half-Earth Day, now in its 8th year, which brings together people from around the world & across disciplines to share perspectives & thought leadership on how to achieve Half-Earth and ensure the health of our planet for future generations. Half-Earth Day has been held in DC, NYC, Berkeley, London, & Montreal, attracting thousands of participants. Dr. Ehrlich has over 30 years of strategic scientific management and research expertise, and diverse academic, non-profit, and corporate leadership experience. As CEO of the non-profit Drug Discovery Center of Innovation, she fostered strategic innovation in early drug development for unmet medical needs. At Merck she led initiatives to establish imaging biomarkers and proof-of-concept for over 12 lead compounds, which are in clinical trials. A keen adventurer & explorer, Paula is an avid hiker, and has summited Mt Rainier. She has been an equine surgeon at universities in 3 countries, and has worked to empower women’s cooperatives in S. Sudan. Always driven by challenge and a desire to make a difference in the world, her current work embodies the hopes of the greatest naturalist of our time, E.O. Wilson.