Kidan Araya

Kidan Araya is an environmental advocacy strategist and climate finance professional with nearly a decade of experience working across Africa and the United States. Ms. Araya is a U.S. Congressional Witness who was called to testify on her experience working to combat illegal logging, environmental corruption, and the illicit natural resource trade in Africa, and she has experience living and/or working in West, Central, and Southern Africa including Cameroon, Nigeria, Zambia, Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo, and The Gambia. Ms. Araya is also an invited U.S. Department of State Speaker Program participant and spoke at the U.S. Embassy in The Gambia on illegal deforestation and illicit timber supply chains between Africa and China. She holds a Master of Arts Degree in Geography from the University of Washington at Seattle, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Relations and Environmental Studies from Beloit College. Ms. Araya is a Climate Communications Lead at the Council on Strategic Risks. Additionally, she previously served as a Board Member for the Africa Policy Accelerator, a network consisting of the next generation of U.S.- Africa policymakers, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C. Ms. Araya's commentary has appeared in over 10+ online media, radio, and television interviews across the world, including Agencia EFE, Voice of America, China Dialogue, Mongabay, and My Joy News (Ghana). Additionally, she was recently named as one of the top 10 African voices on climate change on Twitter by Africa No Filter.