Dave Kramer

Dave's a bridge builder and boundary crosser, currently serving as Director of Green Programs for Boston Green Academy (BGA). Through outdoor learning experiences, real world interdisciplinary projects, and diverse leadership opportunities, BGA empowers students to create a more just and sustainable world. He began his career as a teacher in the late 1990's in Colombia and Boston, found his way into environmental policy and international conservation and development work, and all the while has kept sustainable development, social justice, and the climate crisis front and center. Ever passionate about Colombia, he tries to carve out time to work with a group of friends and former students to imagine new approaches to ecotourism as a post-conflict recovery pathway in rural Colombia through what he's called The Colombia Rising Project. He previously served as program director for Planet Texas 2050 at the University of Texas at Austin (a climate resilience-focused grand challenge weaving connections between disciplines and building bridges to communities). Prior to UT, Dave worked for Verra on an effort with the Rainforest Alliance to create a standard assessment framework for productive tropical landscapes - LandScale; worked for over a decade in various roles with EcoLogic Development Fund focused on supporting grassroots community-led strategies for conservation and locally-defined priorities in Mexico and Central America; and has tried his hand at consulting, network facilitation, and more. Dave holds a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, a BA in English from Dartmouth College, and a certificate in Outdoor Leadership from Greenfield Community College in Massachusetts. He lives in Jamaica Plain (JP) in Boston with his wife, two children, and two pups.