Dr. Samuel Kanyamibwa Joins AWF's Senior Team

The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) is pleased to announce it has appointed long-time conservationist Dr. Samuel Kanyamibwa to serve as Regional Director for Eastern Africa, a position based out of AWF's headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

As Regional Director, Dr. Kanyamibwa will head up the overall management of AWF's Eastern Africa Program, overseeing all regional initiatives throughout the Kilimanjaro, Maasai Steppe, Samburu, and Virunga Heartlands. Working across a number of departments, Dr. Kanyamibwa will help develop and maintain working relationships with major partners in host countries and further enhance the development, funding and communications of AWF's Eastern Africa Program.

"We are delighted to have Sam on board," says Dr. Helen Gichohi, President of AWF. "His considerable experience and management skills will further enhance our long-term objectives across Africa's Heartlands. Sam's role is vital if we are to successfully link vast landscapes that span international borders through cohesive conservation strategies."

During the past two years, Dr. Kanyamibwa has been serving as lead consultant in various fields related to conservation and development in Africa and has provided leadership support to the Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS) as Executive Secretary. Before ARCOS, Dr. Kanyamibwa was Deputy Director for the Worldwide Fund for Nature's (WWF's) Africa and Madagascar Program, Regional Representative for WWF's Eastern Africa Regional Office, and Head of the Africa Program at UNEP's World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

Rwandan born, Dr. Kanyamibwa obtained his Ph.D. from the Universit des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc and Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive in Montpellier, France, where he did also his M.Sc. in evolutionary ecology. He obtained his B.Sc. in biology from Universit Nationale du Rwanda in Butare, Rwanda. An avid ornithologist, Dr. Kanyamibwa is also a qualified teacher and is fluent in English, French, and Kinyarwanda and also speaks Kiswahili.