Daniela Russi is the Food, Land and Water Policy Lead for WRI Europe. In this role, she produces and leverages peer-reviewed evidence to inform and influence EU decision-making on land use and climate policy. 

Before moving to the WRI, Daniela led the policy team of the British Ecological Society (BES), the largest European association of ecologists. At the BES, Daniela steered the preparation of a report on a key environmental policy topic each year, including one on protected areas in 2022 and one on regenerative agriculture in 2023-24. She led her team to engage with governmental bodies and other key stakeholder groups to influence policy making across the four UK nations. 

Before the BES, Daniela spent nine years at the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), an independent sustainability think tank. At IEEP, she led and contributed to a wide range of projects on different aspects of the elaboration, implementation, governance and evaluation of EU environmental policy, in particular in the fields of biodiversity, water, agriculture and land management. 

Daniela holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences-Ecological Economics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. 

As befits a born-and-raised Italian, she’s always on the prowl for a scrumptious coffee in London, where she lives.