An ecologist with an eye for a business approach, a dreamer and a doer, a generalist with attention for detail, a Belgian born in Germany and living in the Netherlands. Whichever label you put on me, love for nature is in my genes and approaching it with a creative twist is what I like. Ecology with an accent!
After graduating from the University of Antwerp as a botanist/vegetation ecologist with an extra Master’s diploma in human ecology and environmental impact assessment from the Free University of Brussels, I worked for a number of years as a research assistant.
At the University of Antwerp I gained experience in nature development and environmental impact assessment, and to this I added landscape ecology and remote sensing at the University of Leuven.
Subsequently, I worked for over 20 years at ECNC – European Centre for Nature Conservation, where I applied my broad range of skills and interests to policy development and implementation, interaction between science, policy and practice, communicating about biodiversity, developing nature indicators, creating and implementing international projects, stakeholder engagement to support nature (I am a certified facilitator), and carrying out targeted studies.