Jackie has more than 30 years of experience working in rural development and conservation around the world: she has a BSc in Agriculture, and an MSc in International Agriculture from Cornell University. Her main passion is working with farmers and rural communities to ensure that they are actively and effectively engaged in conserving and restoring the environment. She has worked with a range of charities and farmer networks in the UK and overseas, supporting farmer cooperatives, community-based conservation groups and promoting agroecology and regenerative agriculture.

Since moving to the UK more than 10 years ago from her native Honduras, where she had a small agroforestry farm, Jackie’s developed a love of the English countryside: she is never happier than when she is walking her dog in the hills around Bath, where she and her family now live.

Jackie also believes passionately in the need to provide greater opportunities for youth, people from diverse ethnic backgrounds and city dwellers to engage with the countryside: she is active in the social and environmental movements of the inner-city church she and her family attend in Bristol.