Stephanie Roe

Dr. Stephanie Roe is WWF’s Global Climate & Energy Lead Scientist, providing scientific leadership on WWF’s work to mitigate climate change and strengthen resilience to its impacts. As part of the Global Science and Climate & Energy Practice teams, she partners with global, regional, and country offices to translate cutting-edge science into actionable insights for conservation practice, policy, and private sector action. 

Dr. Roe represents WWF in major global science and policy processes, serving as a Lead Author of the Sixth and Seventh Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and acting as the WWF Focal Point to the IPCC. She also serves on several scientific advisory bodies, including the SBTi Technical Council, aligning corporate climate action with the best available science.   

Prior to WWF, Dr. Roe was at Climate Focus where she led research on climate and land science and developed and implemented related strategies and initiatives with various governments and practitioners in Latin America and Africa. She also worked on forest conservation and community development with the United Nations in Indonesia, negotiated international climate policy as a UNFCCC Delegate of the Philippines, and advised Fortune 500 companies and cities on climate strategies and sustainability at The Climate Group.

Trained as a conservation ecologist and ecological climatologist with a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and master's from Duke University, Dr. Roe brings experience spanning research, policy, and implementation across 30+ countries. Her work focuses on land and nature-based climate mitigation, climate impacts on ecosystems, sustainable land-food-energy systems, and integrated approaches and modelled scenarios that deliver climate, biodiversity, and social outcomes.  Dr. Roe’s research has been published in leading journals, including Nature Climate Change and Global Change Biology.

Dr. Roe grew up on a farm in the Philippines, and she has lived and worked across North and South America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. She is deeply motivated by the challenge—and opportunity—of turning global science into solutions that work on the ground. 

Education

• Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia
• M.E.M. in Ecosystem Science and Conservation from Duke University
• B.A. from San Diego State University