Elizabeth Losos

As executive in residence at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Dr. Elizabeth Losos oversees policy research on sustainable and resilient infrastructure, delivering data-driven analyses, policy guidance, and capacity support to governments, development banks, corporations, and NGOs. She directs the Infrastructure Sustainability Learning (ISLe) Initiative, a global virtual hub that strengthens practitioner capacity through case-based peer learning, and serves as Duke’s lead for Infrastructure for Good, a partnership with Economist Impact and Deloitte assessing national infrastructure ecosystems and enabling conditions for sustainable investment. Dr. Losos also leads an interdisciplinary team focused on improving performance and scaling debt-for-nature swaps and other nature and climate finance mechanisms that align fiscal policy with conservation and climate resilience goals.

Losos formerly was president and CEO of the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS), a global consortium of universities and research institutes with the mission of promoting education, research, and the responsible use of natural resources in the tropics. Prior to her tenure with OTS, Losos was the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Tropical Forest Science, a global network of large-scale forest demography programs.