Paula Kahumbu

Dr Paula Kahumbu is one of Africa’s best known wildlife conservationists.  She is the Executive Director of WildlifeDirect and creator of the Hands Off Our Elephants campaign with Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta, the First Lady of the Republic of Kenya.

The campaign is widely recognised for its singular successes in advocacy and engaging the people of Kenya to support the protection of elephants.  She is the producer and host of Africa’s first wildlife documentary series made by Africans for Africans called Wildlife Warriors.

Paula is the winner of the 2021 Whitley Award Gold Award, ROLEX National Geographic Explorer of the Year for 2021, The Whitley Award 2014, National Geographic Howard Buffet Award for conservation leadership in Africa in 2010 and is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer.

She received a special commendation at the United Nations Person of the Year celebrations for her critical role in raising awareness and mobilising around the crisis facing elephants in Kenya.  She is recognised as Kenya’s conservation ambassador by Brand Kenya and in 2015 received the Presidential Award and the Order of the Grand Warrior (OGW) title.

She is a trustee of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and the Maun Science Park Botswana. Paula received her PhD in Ecology from Princeton University where she studied elephants off the coast of Kenya.