Rebecca Shaw

In her role as Chief Scientist and Senior Vice President, Shaw works with our many staff and partners around the world to identify the most important scientific questions that challenge our mission and advance solutions to those challenges.  Rebecca came to WWF from the Environmental Defense Fund, where she was responsible for developing and implementing the vision and strategy of the Land, Water & Wildlife program. Prior to joining EDF in 2011, she served first as Director of Conservation Science and then as Associate State Director at the Nature Conservancy’s California Chapter. She’s also researched the impact of climate change at the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University. Rebecca has been published widely, including a number of peer-reviewed works in leading journals such as Science and Nature, and is the recipient of numerous research fellowships. She is a lead author of the section of the 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report that focuses on impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability, and serves as a member of the California Climate Adaptation Advisory Panel. Rebecca holds an M.A. in environmental policy and a Ph.D. in energy and resources from the University of California, Berkeley.