Julie D. Bourns

Julie joined Audubon in October 2024 as Director of Conservation Funding Development for Audubon Americas. In this role, she leads the implementation of Audubon’s strategy to take advantage of existing, new and emerging public funding sources to influence and/or implement impactful projects that protect and restore bird habitat across the organization’s priority geographies in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Julie has over 25 years of experience working with international NGOs in the field of international conservation. Most recently, she worked with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) for almost 12 years, managing TNC’s engagement with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) around policy and public funding. This included guiding conservation teams in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Caribbean in developing proposals to the GEF, GCF, USAID, and other multilateral & bilateral donors on a range of themes related to biodiversity, climate change, marine and freshwater conservation, nature-based solutions, sustainable finance, and others. Before joining TNC, she worked for 8 years as Director of Multilateral Relations at Conservation International.

Julie holds a Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Wellesley College. She has completed courses in Ornithology and Tropical Botany and is an enthusiastic birder.