Andrea Capurro

Andrea Capurro is the Chief of Program Staff at The Ocean Foundation helping the team thrive in their conservation programs and initiatives. Previously, Andrea served as a Science Policy Advisor for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina supporting environmental management and ocean protection in Antarctica. In particular, she was a leading researcher for the development of a Marine Protected Area in the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the most fragile ecosystems in the world. Andrea helped the international body tasked with governing the southern oceans (CCAMLR) plan for trade-offs between conserving the ecological community and the needs of people. She has worked in multidisciplinary teams in complex international scenarios towards shaping decision-making processes, including as part of the Delegation of Argentina to numerous international meetings.

Andrea is an Editorial Board Member for the Journal Antarctic Affairs, a member of the US National Science Policy Network, a Marine Protected Areas Advisor for Agenda Antártica, and a member of the Scientific Committee of RAICES NE-USA (the network of Argentinean professionals working in the northeast of the US).

Andrea has travelled to Antarctica six times, including during the winter, which has had a huge impact on her. From extreme isolation and complex logistics to outstanding nature and unique governance system. A place worth protecting that encourage her to keep seeking solutions to pressing environmental challenges, for which the ocean is our biggest ally.

Andrea has a MA degree in Environmental Management from the Instituto Tecnológico Buenos Aires and a licentiate degree (MA equivalent) in biological sciences from the University of Buenos Aires. Her passion for the ocean began at a young age when watching a documentary about orcas intentionally strand out of water to hunt sea lions’ pups, an extraordinary and cooperative behavior they do (almost exclusively) in Patagonia, Argentina.