Staff Spotlight: Andrea Pavlick
Andrea oversees USAID’s portfolio of environment programming in Cambodia, which includes three Mission biodiversity conservation projects: USAID Morodok Baitang, the recently ended Cambodia Green Future Activity, and the new USAID Conserve project. USAID/Cambodia also buys into the regional SERVIR Southeast Asia program, which is a joint initiative of USAID and NASA, and Wonders of the Mekong. Andrea has worked on biodiversity conservation in Southeast Asia for as long as she’s been at USAID, so you might be surprised to learn she began her career in chemistry.
Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Andrea actually began her career in chemistry. After studying chemistry and mathematics in college, she went back to school a few years later to earn her PhD in Environmental Science and Engineering in Oregon.
Andrea’s post-doctoral research looked at how to reduce emissions from heavy-duty diesel engines in big trucks. As a chemistry professor, she taught a course called Science and Our Global Heritage about the impacts of four different environmental challenges on four different countries. At this point, Andrea realized she wanted to continue helping people understand how our actions impact our planet—just not in a university.
In 2010, Andrea left academia for the Peace Corps’ Technology Transfer Program in Mexico. She returned to the United States as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2013, where she worked in the office that implements the Toxic Substances Control Act. Andrea joined USAID as a Foreign Service Officer in 2016. Her first post was USAID/Indonesia as the point of contact (POC) for countering wildlife trafficking, an issue she continues to help address in Cambodia.
“Since my technical background is not in ecology or biology, I had a lot of catching up to do when I became USAID/Indonesia’s POC for countering wildlife trafficking.”
Andrea pauses during a site visit in Cambodia to snap a selfie with an elephant. Credit: Andrea Pavlick, USAID/Cambodia
Combating wildlife trafficking is a priority for USAID in Cambodia because of the country’s role as a source, transit, and destination country for the trade. In addition, Andrea says snaring—a method of trapping animals with a flexible cable, wire, or line anchored to a fixed point—is the biggest challenge for Cambodia’s terrestrial wildlife because it indiscriminately devastates all wildlife capable of being caught in a snare. At the same time, the country’s freshwater and marine biodiversity is threatened by overfishing and infrastructure development, especially in the Mekong watershed/Tonle Sap River system, home to one of the world’s great wildlife migrations.
To address these challenges, USAID/Cambodia works primarily with civil society and the private sector on cross-sectoral programming. Big-picture, systems-level thinking is a priority for Andrea, and it’s key to her oversight of Mission’s environment portfolio.
Andrea takes every opportunity to learn more about conservation in development. She joined the 2019 Facilitating and Applying Theories of Change in USAID Environment Programs workshop, was a member of the 2020–2021 Biodiversity Advisor Practicum, and participated in the most recent Practical, InnoVative, On-the-job Technical Support (PIVOT) cohort. Her advice for other USAID staff who might be working in unfamiliar sectors or contexts is to not be afraid to ask for resources or support because there are a lot available.
“The biodiversity community at USAID has welcomed me to the team, and they let me share my perspectives and help me understand issues and concepts that are new to me. I like to think this is an example of how including diverse voices in conversation results in a richer discussion and, hopefully, better development outcomes.”
Andrea also volunteered to share her perspective working at USAID Missions during the process to update the USAID Biodiversity Policy. Andrea’s support for the Biodiversity Policy update is no surprise when you know her favorite part of her job: figuring things out. “I like working on challenging problems. Specifically, I like activity design. I think it is one of the most important parts of our jobs and one that we often don’t spend enough time and energy on.”
As a member of the Mission Advisory Group and the Policy Working Group, Andrea chose to work on the integration and metrics subcommittees to address specific challenges she has encountered in Mission-level biodiversity conservation programming in these areas. This work aligns with her belief that working across sectors and hearing diverse voices leads to improved results.
Andrea’s vision for the future is “a world where there are still wild places, as opposed to a world where wildlife survives in zoos and sanctuaries.” To get there, she wants to see an end to habitat loss and deforestation, the establishment of effective wildlife corridors that connect national parks and protected areas, and an end to poaching and overfishing so that wildlife can repopulate Asia’s wild places without being overly managed by people. She knows climate resilience will be key to achieving this vision—something she isn’t quite sure how to achieve yet—but as always, she’ll “cast a large net!” to figure it out.
