Kai Carter is the Global Climate Initiative director at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Kai leads the Foundation’s grantmaking to halt and reverse tropical deforestation while delivering sustainable development and promoting an inclusive rural transformation. For the past year she has served as the interim lead for the new Forests, People, Climate collaborative.

Kai joined the Foundation in 2014 and led the development and execution of the Foundation’s agriculture, livelihoods, and conservation grantmaking. She also represents the Foundation in the donor commitment to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. Kai has worked at the intersection of the environment and human wellbeing for nearly 20 years. Prior to joining the Foundation, she managed clean energy and safe water projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America for Impact Carbon and served as an analyst for the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Kai has a B.A. in International Relations from Brown University, a Master of Public Policy from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and a postgraduate diploma in Development Studies from the University of the South Pacific. In her free time Kai serves on the Board of Directors for the YMCA of the East Bay and as a volunteer advisor for the organization’s Youth and Government and Model United Nations programs.