Kathleen Fitzgerald is the vice president of land protection for the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), based in Nairobi, Kenya. She oversees AWF's land portfolio, including management and protection of conservation lands in sub- Saharan Africa. Ms. Fitzgerald has more than 20 years' experience in community engagement and directing landscape-scale conservation. Prior to joining AWF, she held key positions at the Stowe Land Trust, the Wildlands Project, and was a co-founder and executive director of the Northeast Wilderness Trust. Since joining AWF, Ms. Fitzgerald has helped create community conservancies, secure wildlife corridors, improved management of protected areas and supported the design of businesses for conservation. She has lived in Africa since 2007 and recently contributed a chapter to Island Press's Protecting the Wild on the role of protected areas in Africa.