Meet Global Land Alliance
At our core, Global Land Alliance is a group of professionals with a genuine commitment to equality and social justice. We believe change comes through building a land alliance to advance land governance and land access. Meet our our team:
Global Land Alliance Team
Core Personnel
DR. GABRIELA RODRIGUES EKLUND | Technical Director
TENURE AND CLIMATE EXPERT
Dr. Gabriela Rodrigues Eklund is a Geographer and land and natural resources governance professional with 17 years of professional experience in project design, oversight, M&E and management, as well as in designing project management and environmental and social compliance systems. In addition to GLA she has worked for the Tenure Facility, Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, and South Pole. Her special areas of focus have been the social aspects of land-tenure related interventions, collective tenure, tenure and the carbon market, and tree cover and climate change. Gabriela holds a PhD in Geographical Sciences from the University of Maryland-College-Park. She is based in Stockholm, Sweden and is fluent in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese
CHRISTEN CORCORAN | Associate Director
Christen Corcoran is a social scientist with a background in governance and social theory. She is a climate, social and racial justice activist. She holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from Universität Bremen and Jacobs University, with an area of focus in rule of law and border theory. Corcoran served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Morocco where she worked in the youth and gender development sector. She speaks German and Moroccan Arabic.
CYNTHIA BERNING
Cynthia Berning is a project management professional with expertise in land tenure, agriculture, irrigation and rural finance projects. She has worked for ten years in rural development and project management with MCC, Peace Corps and USAID. Cynthia has extensive field experience in North and Sub-Saharan Africa, China, Latin America, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe and speaks French, Spanish and Moroccan Arabic
CHRISTINA KUNTZ
Kuntz has over ten years experience working in international development including as a Peace Corps volunteer, program director, and researcher. She is especially interested in how land tenure can support participation, accountability and environmental conservation in addition to effective information transfer mechanisms between key stakeholders. Christina holds a MA in International Development and BA in Psychology and has lived in North America, South America, and Asia. She has been based in Colombia for the past 10 years, and is fluent in English and Spanish.
Executive and Strategic Advisors
DR. MALCOLM CHILDRESS | Executive Director
SENIOR PRACTICE MANAGER, URBAN AND ENVIRONMENT
Malcolm Childress is a multi-disciplinary land resources specialist with 30 years of global experience, including urban and rural property rights, and strategy for managing critical global ecosystems. His focus areas include land policy and governance, land markets, land registration, property taxation, cadastral systems and spatial planning.
KEVIN BARTHEL | Operations Advisor
Kevin Barthel, a Global Land Alliance founder, has over 30 years of experience as a professional geographer focused on property rights and land policy to promote economic development and sound natural resource management, including a focus on emerging technology.
Associated Consultants
ANNA LOCKE
Anna Locke is the Co-Director of Prindex. Previously she was a Director of the UK-based Overseas Development Institute and Head of the Agricultural Development and Policy Programme. She joined ODI in July 2011 after having worked for 19 years in development, 12 of which were in Mozambique. Her focus in recent years has been on land governance and large-scale investment, biofuels and food security.
DR. VITOR BUKVAR FERNANDES
Dr. Vitor Bukvar Fernandes is a senior researcher at IGT. His focus is on land governance, land appropriation, financialization in Latin America, deforestation, and political economy. He has extensive experience as a consultant on urban and rural land governance, working for organizations such as the IDB, the World Bank, various private companies, and NGOs.
LAURA BERMUDEZ
Laura Bermudez is a cultural anthropologist with ten years of experience in qualitative research, M&E systems, community involvement and an emerging interest in land tenure security and rural development. She focuses on developing context-specific research, assessments and monitoring systems that deliver actionable data. She is based in Munich, Germany and speaks English, French, and Spanish fluently.
DR. DENYS NIZALOV
Dr. Nizalov is an Impact Evaluation agricultural, rural & regional Development and Specialist with more than 15 years’ experience. He is the Senior Land Governance Adviser for Prindex where he supports research and country engagement on land tenure security. Nizalov worked as a Program Director for “Supporting Transparent Land Governance in Ukraine” World Bank. Nizalov holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University in 2006.
VICTOR ENDO
Víctor Endo is a land administration specialist with 25 years of experience in the legal and institutional components of land regularization, registration and land governance in general. He is the regional Coordinator of the World Bank’s Land Governance Assessment Framework for LAC region. He is the founder of Administracion del Territorio, a consultancy firm based in Lima.
JENNIFER DUNCAN
Jennifer is a lawyer with more than 15 years of experience working as a land and resource tenure specialist, focusing on gender and social inclusion. She has worked on land policy, law, institutional and customary/social reforms in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and North America. She has collaborated with governments, bilateral and multilateral development institutions, academic and civil society partners, as well as the private sector on inclusive land and resource governance, with an emphasis on systems change through rule of law and access to justice.
LAURA RESTREPO
Restrepo is a Colombian environmental and human rights lawyer. She works with civil society organizations for the rights of ethnic peoples, women and victims of the armed conflict. She has a background as a researcher in transitional justice and has worked as a Rural Land Tenure Attorney, focusing on gender equality and women's rights.
IAN LANGDOWN
Ian is a consultant researcher for Prindex. His experience includes policy-orientated research on land tenure, community level urban resilience, ecosystem based adaptation to climate change, and water and sanitation provision. He has expertise in quantitative and qualitative data collection, analysis and dissemination, including community-led data collection and mapping, GIS, and household survey design and implementation. Before joining Prindex, Ian was an ODI researcher, and worked as a research assistant with the Development Planning Unit at UCL.
ADRIANA GAVIRIA
Adriana Gaviria is a statistical data analyst. She is a PhD candidate in economics and holds a masters' degree in cultural studies. She has broad experience in academic research and public policy evaluation, including the topics of peacebuilding, food security, rural development, among others. Skills in project coordination, quantitative and qualitative data collection design, processing and analysis, and document writing and editing. Fieldwork experience in rural areas and with vulnerable populations, including ethnic minorities, conflict victims and undernourished children. She is based in Bogotá, Colombia and speaks English, Portuguese, and Spanish fluently.
DAVID VARELA
Dr. David F. Varela is an international consultant to governments and multilateral organizations with more than thirty years of experience in Canada, the United States, Latin America and the Middle East. He received his doctoral degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington DC. Dr. Varela has a particular expertise in the design, supervision and evaluation of programs and projects financed by the international cooperation in the areas of governance and land tenure. He has worked extensively with the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the US Agency for International Development, among other clients. Dr. Varela is presently Director of the Center for Economic Regulation and International Competitiveness of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (PUJ) in Bogota, Colombia.
Board of Directors
