Meet Our Staff
We're small but mighty!
Jennifer Castner directs Eurasian Wildlife and Peoples.
Jennifer Castner advances Eurasian Wildlife and Peoples’ mission, builds partnerships, and drives fundraising efforts. She brings decades of experience in non-profit strategic development and planning, environmental conservation action, Russian language translation and interpreting, and solidarity and collaboration with Indigenous activists. She has traveled extensively in Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, and beyond.
Jennifer’s early career path reflects her life-long commitment to strengthening and supporting communities. After graduating from Bryn Mawr College with a Bachelor’s in Russian language and linguistics, Jennifer worked for American Councils for International Education in Ukraine and in the United States, as a jobs counselor for Russian-speaking and Bosnian refugees at Jewish Vocational Service (San Francisco), and as operations director at Heart to Heart Global Cardiac Care. Prior to joining Earth Island Institute in 2006, Jennifer served as Russia program director at a conservation organization with a long-standing program in Russia.
In addition, Jennifer is a Russian-English translator and consults on grants administration and Eurasian environmental and Indigenous movements for nonprofits and foundations. She is a member of the Central Asian Regional Information Network. She lives in the United States. In her free time, she rides horses, bakes, knits, gardens, and volunteers in her community.
Selected publications
- Gas intrigues: Pipelines, nature reserves, NGOs, and the war, UWEC Work Group, September 2023 (co-author)
- Snow Leopards (Second Edition), Biodiversity of World: Conservation from Genes to Landscapes, Snow Leopard Conservation in Russia, 2024, (co-author)
- Community is Power, Earth Island Journal, Spring 2021 (author)
- Snow Leopard Population Monitoring Guidebook, WWF-Russia, 2020 (translator)
- Shor Shamanic Epic Folktales: Traditional Siberian Shamanic Tales, Arbachakov, L. & Arbachakov, A., 2019 (translator)
- Russian Indigenous Defenders Movement: a Briefing for Funders, International Funders for Indigenous Peoples, May 2018 (co-author)
- In Putin's Russia, Environmentalists Face Stiff Repression, Earth Island Journal, Summer 2015 (author)
- Encyclopedia of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East of the Russian Federation, Center for Support of Indigenous Peoples of the North, 2011 (translator)