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2026 Candidate Alexis Erwin

Alexis C. Erwin (CV)
Founder and Principal
Trophic Advisory

Candidate for: Member of the Governing Board

After a Ph.D. on plant-insect interactions in the Agrawal lab at Cornell and an NSF-funded traineeship at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, I pursued a career at the science-policy interface, using ecological science and systems thinking to inform environmental, energy, and climate decisions at local, state, national, and international levels.

As a CCST fellow in the California State Senate Energy Committee, I drafted legislation establishing the state’s approach to managing risks of an emerging energy/transportation subsector: crude-by-rail. After the bill was signed into law, I continued to advise on the topic, including by providing testimony to senior staff of a U.S. Senate Committee with relevant oversight authority.

I then completed an AAAS fellowship at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Among other portfolios, I drafted, negotiated, and oversaw implementation of the environmental procedures for Power Africa, a 12-federal agency Presidential Initiative that expanded electricity access to over 200 million people across sub-Saharan Africa.

In progressive leadership roles, I led the United States’ regional and then global oversight of environmental safeguards during and after the construction of major infrastructure projects funded by the World Bank and peer banks. Working with finance, planning, and regulatory senior officials in 15 countries across Asia and Africa, I identified risks, proposed avoidance and mitigation measures, oversaw their implementation, and built local government and community capacity through multi-year partnerships.

In my final roles as Deputy Director and Managing Director, I advanced the organization’s policy priorities through strategy-budget alignment, organizational change management, and external affairs.

My federal service ended in summer 2025 when USAID was abruptly dismantled. In response, I co-planned and managed the Congressional campaign of a former federal climate scientist and then founded an advisory firm to fundraise, design evidence-based policy, and build grassroots support for pro-environment candidates at all levels of government.

ESA engagement has sustained me throughout. I was a group leader and speaker at ESA’s Graduate Student Policy Award 2-day training program in 2026, 2018, and 2012. I served on the Public Affairs Committee 2013-2016 and was the inaugural Student Liaison to the Policy Section in 2012. I contributed to ESA’s ‘An Ecologist’s Guidebook to Policy Engagement’ (2011) and was featured on ESA’s former podcast in 2010.

What Interests, Experience or Skills Would You Bring to This Position?

Interests: If elected, I will be a voice for: 1) Growing our membership, especially among colleagues serving in the public and private sectors and colleagues based overseas; 2) Expanding policy engagement toward the courts and state and local levels, where ecologists can significantly influence planning and resource management decisions while building awareness of research institutions and the colleagues who work there; and 3) Adapting professional development offerings to reflect academic and non-academic careers of tomorrow.

Experience: I bring current Board experience, serving as 1) Vice Chair of a Washington, D.C. nonprofit with annual revenue over $1M and a growing membership, and 2) Vice President, Finance for a new national nonprofit preparing to seek corporate partnerships and foundation grants. Additionally, as the manager of a federal policymaking Board in 2024, I recruited and trained its 10-person Secretariat, ensured high-quality planning and decision materials, and collaboratively established 3 sub-boards on emerging topics.

Skills: I am skilled in setting annual and 5-year strategy and overseeing financial health, as I did throughout my time at USAID, which, like ESA, was a geographically distributed, multidisciplinary organization subject to public accounting and reporting requirements. I also count the following as core competencies: Congressional advocacy, particularly for research funding; executive branch planning and operations; cross-functional team leadership; program design and evaluation; science communication; having fun!

How Would You Support ESA’s Mission?

I would immediately encourage the Board and staff to support ESA members in submitting comments on the Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance, a proposed rule released by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that directs dozens of changes to the regulations governing all federal grants and cooperative agreements.

Looking ahead, I would offer ways to further align our external engagement, for example by more strategically coordinating across the Rapid Response Team, Graduate Student Policy Award Alumni Network, Public Affairs Committee, and Public Affairs Office.

And because I continue to be inspired by Past President Pouyat’s ‘Extending the Tent’ initiative, I would seek to broaden our membership to environmental professionals in think tanks and nonprofits, philanthropy, bilateral and multilateral agencies, and the private sector. ESA could also welcome (or welcome back) some of the 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s who have left government since the start of this Administration.

Personally, I would contribute a global mindset shaped by an NSF-funded traineeship at an international research institute, 11 years leading USAID environmental policy and programs across Africa and Asia, and opportunities to represent the United States in international science policy fora. This has given me deep cultural competence in collaborating across landscapes, time zones, and institutions to address complex challenges. I am also raising a multicultural, multilingual family and want my professional service to help protect the climate and coupled human and natural systems my children will inherit.