Marcy Mendelson
Wildlife Criminologist | Conservation Researcher | Documentary Filmmaker

Marcy Mendelson is an interdisciplinary expert in wildlife crime, environmental justice, and human-wildlife conflict, with over a decade of experience in investigative fieldwork, intelligence analysis, and global communications. A member of INTERPOL’s Wildlife Crime Working Group (Civil Society Division), she holds an MSc in International Criminal Justice (Wildlife Criminology) from the University of Portsmouth, where her thesis on gender and cheetah trafficking was awarded with distinction.

Her analytical and investigative work has supported organizations including the Environmental Investigation Agency and Freeland. She has produced intelligence reports on illegal wildlife trade and conducted field journalism across Eastern and Southern Africa, with bylines in National Geographic, AFAR, and Africa Geographic. She is the award-winning director of The Last Cheetahs of Solitaire, a conservation documentary currently screening internationally and on the WaterBear Network.

Mendelson regularly speaks on the silencing of conservation actors in politically volatile contexts, most recently presenting on Ecopoliticide—the strategic targeting of conservationists—as part of CECRN’s Global Environmental Justice Conference (2025). Her work integrates criminological research, visual storytelling, and advocacy for coexistence, with a sustained focus on gender, displacement, and transnational enforcement dynamics in nature crime.

Website: Cheetah-Watch.com

Portfolio: MendelsonImages.com

Talk: Ecopoliticide – CECRN Global Environmental Justice Conference

Location: Based in Berlin, Germany & Global / U.S. & Africa-based operations

Languages: English (native/ fluent), German B1

Security Clearance: Eligible upon request

Director, Inquisitio Limited

Landscape Manager, Wildlife Conservation Society

Counter-Trafficking Advisor, Wildlife Conservation Society

Jessica Graham serves as the President of JG Global Advisory, LLC a minority, women-owned small business in the Washington, DC area that provides integrated solutions responding to the challenges of environmental security. Through strategic policy and planning, business development, and project management, Jessica has supported hundreds of conservation NGOs around the globe to secure tens of millions of dollars in funding to protect biodiversity. She previously worked with INTERPOL’s Illicit Trade Sub-Directorate and also served as a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of State where she created the wildlife crime program for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) and served as a negotiator working on crime, biodiversity and climate change issues in the United Nations. With over 15 years of dedicated experience working on international issues, she regularly lectures and implements global projects for both the non-profit and private sectors. Her leadership has been instrumental in developing environmental crime programs and facilitating partnerships aimed at counter wildlife trafficking projects. Her work has impacted long-standing policy and capacity-building efforts across continents, from Africa to Latin America and Asia, reflecting her deep commitment to enhancing global security and conservation.
She serves on the Board of several international and locally based organizations in Washington, DC that are dedicated to the environment and empowering youth and founded a non-profit organization aimed at protecting vulnerable communities from global insecurity. Jessica received her Master’s degree from the University of California, San Diego where she studied International Politics, Environmental Policy, and Chinese Studies and holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida.
Jessica has conducted research and published several pieces on wildlife crime, including co-authoring a chapter in Women and Wildlife Trafficking: Participants, Perpetrators, and Victims, reviewing the zero instances of corruption in all-female anti-poaching units across Africa in an academic textbook in March 2022.

Biodiversity and Conservation Monitoring, Fauna & Flora

Consultant

President, Action World

Chief Technical Officer, WCP Zambia

Justice Programme Manager, WCP Zambia