Elsa Chang has over 15 years of combined professional experience as project manager, policy researcher on environment and development issues, trainer in participatory methodologies in both non-profit and public sectors in Latin America and Southeast Asia and as an elementary school teacher.

Currently, Elsa is Program Manager for the Leadership for a Changing World Program with the Advocacy Institute in Washington, DC. For the previous 8 years, Elsa worked at World Resources Institute, an independent, non-profit environmental policy think-tank, as Senior Associate and Project Director in the Biological Resources Program and the Institutions and Governance Program. There she implemented policy research, strategic planning, and capacity-building projects throughout Latin America. She has an expertise on community-based natural resource management, conservation and governance, and NGO partnership development. She has published several policy and scientific articles and papers, and has attended numerous international conferences and seminars.

Formerly trained as Mesoamerican Archaeologist at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala, Elsa completed a Masters degree in International Development Policy at Duke University, North Carolina in 1993. She is fluent in Spanish and is proficient in Portuguese and Chinese Cantonese.