Dr. Karen Sudmeier-Rieux is a Senior Advisor, Disaster Risk Reduction with the United Nations Environmental Programme’s (UNEP) Crisis Management Branch in Geneva. Karen has over a decade of experience researching, teaching and publishing about ecosystems and disaster risk reduction. She is currently coordinating a global project on ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction. In collaboration with CNRD, Karen has developed a MSc Course and two Massive Open Online Courses on Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction. She holds a PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and Masters’ degrees in international development and forest ecology.