Kalpana Giri is a Senior Manager in the Global Restoration Initiative. She works to expand WRI's ambitions on social equity by research and equity-integrated programming.

Kalpana is a trained forester and has demonstrated experience in mainstreaming gender and social equity considerations in technical sectors programming with a focus on forestry, clean energy, REDD+, climate adaptation, FLEGT, and restoration topics. Prior to joining WRI, she worked with RECOFTC where she managed the direction and portfolio of equity integration. She designed and implemented a regional WAVES leadership program in partnership with sectoral ministries, private sector, women, and indigenous groups to promote transformative solutions for the environment and people across forestry and climate change policies and plans. She is a thought leader on topics of gender and social equity in forestry and climate change sector, and advises several international organizations such as IUFRO to strengthen their gender strategies and portfolio.

Kalpana holds a PhD in Forest Science from University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria. Her direct experience of working with diverse stakeholders, including marginalized actors have made herself more aware of the acute need and usefulness of plural knowledge systems held by marginalized actors in addressing major environmental issues.

Kalpana is based in Washington, D.C. with her husband Karthik and son, Kalash.