As Director for CGIAR’s Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) Program, Izabella has worked in Africa, Asia and globally as a development practitioner, negotiator, donor and thought leader on environment and development solutions. Based out of the International Water Management Institute’s (IWMI) HQ in Sri Lanka, she leads a global research-for-development program connecting 11 CGIAR centres, FAO and the RUAF Foundation. WLE delivers agriculture solutions that protect our natural resources and the people that rely on them, particularly in the Global South. To use her words: ‘Never has there been a greater need for new ways of engaging decision makers to solve problems through transdisciplinary research, as decisions made today will pave the way for a sustainable future for millions of lives.’ Izabella spent ten years with the UK Department for International Development (DFID), where she led the Asia Regional Climate and Environment Unit in New Delhi, served as Lead Negotiator and Advisor for the Biodiversity and Desertification Conventions and as well as working at the Research and Evidence Division, and for DFID Kenya. In her earlier career she was Research Coordinator on Biodiversity and Livelihoods with the International Institute of Environment & Development (IIED), and as Environmental Management Advisor for the Lutheran World Service in Tanzania.