Alice Macharia serves as the Vice President of Africa Programs for the Jane Goodall Institute, where she provides strategic direction for program staff across multiple country offices, including the development and implementation of JGI’s community-led strategies to conserve chimpanzees, restore and protect habitats, and promote co-existence with wildlife. Alice upholds JGI’s signature Tacare approach to conservation, and her work balances the needs of individual communities while encouraging them to become stewards of their environment, build resilience to climate change while strategically identifying and addressing threats to chimpanzee populations. She partners with staff across JGI’s country offices in Africa to foster partnerships with governments, fellow NGOs, and communities to collectively address and solve conservation challenges.

Alice first began working at the Jane Goodall Institute decades ago as an intern.  Her work at the organization has since vastly expanded — her career highlights include leading JGI’s efforts to obtain the largest single grant of $19.9 million dollars and guiding her team’s efforts to expand and fully develop the work of JGI’s Tacare program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Alice has served on several trusts and committees, including the Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust (CSWCT) and the African Biodiversity Collaborative Group. She has also served for years as an evaluator for the Elinor Ostrom Award on Collective Governance of the Commons.  Alice now lives in the desert with her husband and two children, but travels often to her hometown of Nairobi, Kenya, where she spends time visiting family and friends and being in nature.