Melissa Garvey is a global conservation leader with 20 years of experience designing and scaling innovative solutions that protect nature and address climate change. As Global Director of The Nature Conservancy's Nature Bonds program, she led a 50-person international team that refinanced $3 billion in sovereign debt, unlocked $1 billion in large-scale financing for biodiversity, and conserved over 242 million hectares of ocean, land, and freshwater across six countries. Her work has earned the TED Audacious Prize and Earthshot Prize Finalist recognition and has been featured on NPR and at global forums including COP28 and the UN Biodiversity Summit. 

Melissa now advises on TNC's next generation of transformative conservation strategies, including AI-powered decision-support tools for conservation finance. A skilled public speaker and former litigation attorney, she holds a JD from Cornell Law School and a BA from Indiana University. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, where she competes in ultramarathons across the American West.