Keiruna Inc. is a one-woman show run by me, Dr. Tara Sayuri Whitty. I strive to provide projects and organizations with useful, responsive approaches and outputs to support more effective, inclusive, and meaningful processes, outcomes, and impacts.
I am a conservation professional with ~20 years of research experience, mainly on coastal conservation and small-scale fisheries management issues in the Global South (particularly Southeast Asia). Most of my research has focused on evaluating conservation processes, from which I’ve learned insights that were further informed by my time as a conservation practitioner.
I am particularly driven to work on issues related to stakeholder inclusion, increasing diversity in the field, and accountability for project outcomes (good, bad, and in between). Generally, I take both a Design Thinking and Systems Thinking approach to projects, allowing me to better understand: pathways from conservation inputs to outcomes and impacts; the landscape of stakeholders (and their interactions) and drivers of stakeholder actions; and the needs, capacity, and goals of clients.
To learn more, go to tswhitty.com
Background
President & Consultant
Keiruna Inc., 2020-present
Engagement & Social-Ecological Expert
MarFishEco, 2020-present
Community Engagement Director
Pact Media, 2022-present
Previously:
Gulf of Mottama International Advisor
International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2017-2019
NSF SEES Postdoctoral Fellow & Conservation Assessment Scholar
Center for Marine Biodiversity & Conservation, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD, 2014-2017
MSc, PhD
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD; Center for Marine Biodiversity & Conservation, 2009, 2014.
B.A.
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, + Environmental Studies Certificate, Princeton University, 2005.
Keiruna Inc. 