Sehr Ali

Overseeing teams in 10 countries who are restoring degraded landscapes by planting hundreds of millions of trees each year, in extremely remote areas, with wild animals, poor roads, spotty internet service, extreme weather, and civil unrest, there are no typical days for Sehr.

Having spent time in over forty countries, she understands the need to be flexible and to work with local teams to develop solutions that will actually work on the ground, not just in theory or in a conference room in the US. She helps bring to life our mission of planting trees and saving lives by putting the community first, then empowering them to heal their environment and create hope and opportunity for themselves and their families.

Sehr also oversees our Monitoring & Evaluation team, which tracks the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of our work, ensures we meet our commitments, oversees our compliance with scientific standards and best practices, and communicates with our funders the ways in which their money is being put to the best possible use.

In the face of all those technical challenges, Sehr maintains a connection and commitment to our people. One example came after a major earthquake in Haiti in August 2021. Some leaders' first reaction would be to initiate a damage assessment of their infrastructure. Instead, Sehr first took the time to ensure that all team members and their families were safe and had enough food and water. She then guided those teams through a damage assessment across our project sites so we could restart operations, return people to their jobs, and continue restoring the environment and the local communities.