Laurel Neme

About

Laurel Neme is a regular contributor to National Geographic and Mongabay.com. She's also the author of ANIMAL INVESTIGATORS: How the World's First Wildlife Forensics Lab is Solving Crimes and Saving Endangered Species, with a foreword by Richard Leakey and endorsed by Jane Goodall, and two children's books, THE ELEPHANT'S NEW SHOE, a true story of an elephant who needs a prosthetic foot, and ORANGUTAN HOUDINI, about an orangutan who outsmarts his zookeeper. Laurel's writing is enriched by her previous work and field experience across Africa and elsewhere. She worked for the US Treasury Department, where she was responsible for US government oversight of the environmental and social sustainability of more than $2.5 billion/year in multilateral development bank investments in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Her interventions at the World Bank Group, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and European Development Bank led to new policies on environmental assessment, information disclosure and involuntary resettlement, improved public participation and better project designs. She was also Chief of Party for US Agency for International Development’s FRAME program and Team Leader for a strategic assessment of USAID/Malawi’s environment program.