Harmony C. Patricio received her B.A. in Environmental Studies from UC, Santa Cruz, her M.P.A in Environment Science and Policy from Columbia University in New York, and recently completed her Ph.D. in Environmental Science from the Australian Rivers Institute at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. She has worked in international conservation research and management for more than 10 years, including in Central America and Southeast Asia. She spent six years working with regional collaborators in the Mekong River Basin to conserve freshwater species. She serves on the Freshwater Conservation Committee of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and is Co-Chair of the Freshwater Specialist Group for the World Commission on Protected Areas. She was a visiting scholar at the Conservation Action Lab at UC Santa Cruz.