Kavita Heyn
Associate Director, Oregon Conservation Programs

Department: Conservation

Area of Focus: Kavita campaigns for the protection and designation of Wild and Scenic Rivers in Oregon by working with local communities and conservation partners. Kavita also coordinates the Northwest American Rivers-NOAA Community Based Restoration Partnership grant program, which provides funding to local communities to restore rivers and enhance native fish passage.

Background: Kavita joined American Rivers in 2008. She is a Doris Duke Conservation Fellow, and before joining the organization, she developed research on the effects of climate change in the Merced River Basin in Yosemite National Park. She also completed a master's thesis that examined solutions to stormwater pollution in the trans-border Tijuana River Watershed between the U.S. and Mexico.

Prior to her work in the United States, Kavita spent three years as a Country Development Officer for the Woodland Trust in the United Kingdom, where she managed one of the most successful forest acquisition and protection campaigns in the Trust's history. She also worked in Nepal at the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development where she developed a transboundary conservation strategy for the Eastern Himalaya. 

Education: B.A. in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics and Political Science in theUnited Kingdom, Masters of Environmental Science and Management from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Masters in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science

Favorite River: Rogue River