Susannah McCandless, a Fulbright Scholar and Switzer Environmental Leadership Fellow, holds a Masters and PhD in geography from Clark University in Massachusetts and an undergraduate degree in Ecology, Francophone and Latin American Studies from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on the political ecology of conservation, especially that of privately owned land, and examines whether it can function as a commons. She also works with Latino farmworkers to understand how legal status and grassroots advocacy affect rights of access, mobility and self-determination in rural landscapes.

Susannah has taught human geography at the University of Vermont, environmental studies at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and worked formally and informally with organisations focused on land reform, community forestry, ethnobiology, environmental justice and migrant farmworkers. Raised in Vermont, USA, Susannah is interested in the critical intersections between viable landscapes and just human livelihoods. She is a native speaker of English, and also speaks Spanish and French.

As North America Director for the Global Diversity Foundation and Advisor for the Global Environments Network, Susannah facilitates North America-based GEN regional academies and community exchanges.