Dr Sarah Thomas has worked as head of conservation advocacy & engagement at Auckland Zoo in New Zealand since 2019, where she has been instrumental in shaping the organisation’s new strategic roadmap. This is reimagining how zoos deliver on conservation and social outcomes and how Auckland Zoo can embed a social and environmental justice lens to the hugely diverse range of communities that it serves in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
This includes leading the zoo’s bicultural journal to strengthen its relationship with Te Ao Māori, and weaving indigenous thought into all aspects of the organisation.
As well as running her own conservation consultancy, Thomas has previously worked as head of discovery and learning at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and as head of education, conservation and research at Blackpool Zoo.
Thomas is perhaps recently best known as the author of ‘Social Change for Conservation’ – the 2020 World Zoo & Aquarium Conservation Education Strategy (WZACES). She has spent the last two years socialising this strategy globally through conference presentations and workshops and has curated an influential series of open-access webinars – ‘Unpacking the Strategy’.
The WZACES has subsequently been widely endorsed, with feedback from zoos and aquariums around the world about how it is being employed to develop new strategic plans and improve practices, programmes and organisational philosophies.
In 2016, Thomas also led the creation of the EAZA Conservation Education Standards – a policy document that influenced changes in how 400+ EAZA zoos and aquariums are accredited. This policy has now been adopted and embedded into national policy in many countries across UK and Europe.
One nominator said:
“I have known Sarah for over 15 years and have followed the development of her impressive career and the paradigm shift she is currently driving in the science-based approach to conservation advocacy and learning in our industry. She is genuinely one of the kindest, smartest and most hard-working people I have ever met.”