Mary Olive

Mary Olive is the Senior Program Officer for Food and Freshwater Policy, where she serves as the Policy & Government Affairs team’s lead on issues relating to food loss and waste, Great Plains conservation, and freshwater. She works with a broad range of partners to develop policy positions and execute advocacy strategies to advance WWF’s broader conservation mission.

Mary began her career as a congressional staffer on the Senate Agriculture Committee, working on clean water, wildlife, endangered species, and international food security issues. She then joined CARE USA as lead on food security policy, advocating for improvements to how the U.S. delivers international food assistance, before transitioning to directly managing food security programs in Bangladesh and Malawi. From CARE, Mary went on to work at The Wilderness Society, where she served as the forest policy lead on the Government Relations team. Her work focused on improving management within the National Forest System and conserving old-growth forests, culminating in the release of the Forest Service’s National Old-Growth Amendment at the end of the Biden Administration. Mary then joined Carbon180, standing up their forestry work and leading the Land Policy Team as Interim Director before joining WWF.

Education

• J.D., Vermont Law and Graduate School
• Master of Environmental Law and Policy, Vermont Law and Graduate School
• Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science, Bowling Green State University

Areas of expertise

• US Congress, US Government engagement
• Public policy and advocacy
• US forest policy
• Agriculture, food, freshwater
• International food security