Andrea has been a civil servant since 2001. Since late 2020 Andrea has been the International Biodiversity and Climate Director at Defra leading HMG’s international nature work through the G7 and Cop26 Presidencies and with responsibility for the CBD COP15.

Previously she was the domestic Natural Environment Director at Defra and Director of the Civil Service Group in the Cabinet Office. Most of her civil service career has been spent in DFID and DCLG. At the Department for International Development she was Head of the Climate and Environment Department, managed the £3.87bn International Climate Finance portfolio across HMG and represented the UK on the Green Climate Fund Board. She has also been the head of DFID’s largest bilateral programme in Ethiopia and led DFID’s Bilateral Aid Review in 2010.

Prior to DFID she spent 8 years in the Social Exclusion Unit and the Department for Communities and Local Government. She was the Head of Strategy at DCLG and also led policy teams focused on social exclusion and community empowerment.

Her academic training is as a psychologist and medical anthropologist with expertise in working with children, young people and the natural environment. She has led large scale research programmes in Tanzania and Vietnam and with the Government of Ghana. She managed HIV/AIDS programmes for Save the Children (UK) in Malawi and Zimbabwe and led Save the Children’s UK’s advocacy work on Iraq. She was educated at Oxford University and University College London and was a Fulbright scholar at Harvard University.