Sarah Thomas
Head of Conservation Advocacy & Engagement
Auckland Zoo
Dr Sarah Thomas has been head of conservation advocacy and engagement at Auckland Zoo in New Zealand since 2019
In this role, she has contributed to the organisation's strategic roadmap, which reimagines how zoos deliver conservation and social outcomes and how Auckland Zoo can embed a social and environmental justice lens across its diverse communities.
This includes overseeing the zoo’s bicultural journal to strengthen its relationship with Te Ao Māori, and weaving indigenous thought into all facets of the institution.
In 2025, she was appointed president of the International Zoo Educators Association (IZE), a global non-profit driving social change to benefit both people and nature.
Thomas is renowned for her publication ‘Social Change for Conservation’ – the 2020 World Zoo & Aquarium Conservation Education Strategy (WZACES).
WZACES has been widely endorsed, with feedback from zoos and aquariums worldwide on how it is being used 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, which influenced changes in how more than 400 EAZA zoos and aquariums are accredited. This has now been adopted and embedded into national policy in many countries across the UK and Europe.
In addition to running her own conservation consultancy, Thomas previously served as the head of discovery and learning at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and as the head of education, conservation, and research at Blackpool Zoo.
