Dr. Lida Teneva is a marine conservation scientist and program leader with 15+ years of work in marine protection, climate change, local community leadership, ocean public policy, and developing philanthropic programs. She has worked on the science and effective protection of MPAs for 15 years, primarily in the Indo-Pacific region. She has held high level positions at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Conservation International (CI), California Ocean Science Trust, and the Dalio Foundation, influencing policy-makers, resource managers, and local communities on ocean conservation. She is highly regarded in academic circles and continues to publish on conservation, fisheries, and climate topics.
As former Vice President of Oceans for WWF, she developed a new global Area-Based Conservation (MPA) program, to strategically strengthen protection in Southeast Asia, South Pacific, Latin America, and East Africa. Prior to this, she created a new Legislative Services program as Director of California Ocean Science Trust, to influence ocean public policy effectively in California. At the Dalio Foundation, she created ship-based ocean expeditions that led to strengthened MPA protection and new discoveries for sharks and deep-sea species. In prior positions with Conservation International, Wildlife Conservation Society, Lida worked with local, often Indigenous, communities in Hawai‘i and Fiji on empowering them with tools and data to be better stewards of their local fisheries and MPAs, finding strategic opportunities in local policy contexts. She has accumulated expedition experience in the Arctic (Greenland, Svalbard, Northwest Passage, Alaska), Antarctic, Palau, French Polynesia, Australia, Baja California Sur, Galapagos, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and more.
Lida has helped found environmental education organizations and holds Board positions in OneReef and the Mary G. Jameson Foundation. She earned her PhD at Stanford University and Masters at Columbia University and still lives in California. Originally from Bulgaria, Dr. Lida Teneva is an avid diver, flyfisherwoman, aviator, and cook.
