Ιoli Christopoulou
Partner & Policy Director
Throughout her academic and professional career, Ioli has focused on issues of sustainability and environmental law, policy and governance, studying and partaking in the constantly evolving global, European and national environmental politics.
After graduating from Athens College, Ioli received a B.A. (summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa)in International Relations from Mount Holyoke College (MA, USA) and an MA from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (MA, USA),focusing on public international law and organizations and international environmental policy and governance. At the same school, she completed her PhD, examining the role of the structural funds in the sustainable development of the EU.
While a student she volunteered and interned at WWF Greece, the Biopolitics International Organization, the Society for the Protection of Prespa, and the WWF European Policy Office in Brussels. From 2005 to 2018, Ioli joined WWF Greece, where she worked initially as a Policy Researcher and then for a period of 10 years as the organization’s Nature Policy Officer, concentrating on the improvement of environmental law and policy, the effectiveness of protected areas, and, more broadly, biodiversity conservation policies at the national and EU levels. In addition, she coordinated the organization’s strategy team for a period of five years.
She has been appointed as one of the two NGO representatives in the national Nature Committee, which reports to the Minster of Environment and Energy, and currently serves as its alternate chair.
Ioli also has been teaching environmental courses at the College Year in Athens since 2008. She has served as a member of the Board of MEDASSET – The Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtle and is the coordinator of the Mount Holyoke alumnae group of Greece.