Atossa Soltani: Keep the Oil in the Ground

Atossa Soltani is the founder and president of Amazon Watch, an international NGO dedicated to protecting the rainforest and advancing the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. Ms. Soltani is the Hillary Institute of International Leadership’s 2013 Hillary Laureate and serves as the chair of the board of trustees of The Christensen Fund, as a board member of Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, as an advisor to the Peruvian organization The Arkana Alliance, and as an advisor to the InterAmerican Clean Energy Institute. Since 1991, Ms. Soltani has been leading international campaigns in defense of the world’s tropical rainforests. Before founding Amazon Watch in 1996, Ms. Soltani directed campaigns at the Rainforest Action Network to end logging in endangered ecosystems. She began her environmental career as conservation director for the City of Santa Monica where she designed and directed an award-winning energy and water conservation program. Ms. Soltani received her B.S. in public policy from the University of Akron and speaks Spanish, English, Farsi, and Portuguese.
Follow Atossa on Twitter: @asoltani