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Melissa Eckert

March 10, 2022

Melissa joined the Prize in 2013 and manages the foundation’s finances, human resources, and office operations. She has worked in philanthropy, strategic planning, public health, and nonprofit administration for over 20 years, having held positions with the Koret Foundation, the Washington University School of Medicine, and the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture. Melissa holds a BA in Psychology and a MPH in Community Health from Saint Louis University; she interned at the Carter Center and is a Coro Fellow.

Recent Posts

Protecting Indonesia’s Tropical Ecosystems with Rudi Putra


December 11, 2025 – By Michael Sutton

Michael Sutton, the executive director of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, visited 2014 Goldman Prize winner Rudi Putra in Indonesia this November. He shared observations from the trip in the post below. In 2023, Tero Mustonen received the Goldman Environmental Prize for protecting a distinctive natural habitat in Finland: peatlands. These peat marshes and bogs—sometimes known…

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Two Days on the Mekong River in Thailand: A Report from the Field


November 18, 2025 – By Laura Fernandez

This fall, Goldman Environmental Prize Program Manager Laura Fernandez had the opportunity to visit Niwat Roykaew and Tuenjai Deetes, Goldman Prize winners from Thailand from 2022 and 1994, respectively. The following is a guest post about her experience. After spending three days in Chiang Mai, Thailand, attending the Asia Environmental Human Rights Defenders Forum, I…

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Prize Winners Today: Defending Vulnerable Ecosystems with Cath Wallace


October 21, 2025

For 73-year-old Cath Wallace, environmental activism is a lifelong pursuit. Her drive to protect the planet’s most fragile ecosystems is inherent to her identity. A former economics and public policy academic at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, Cath turned to activism in the mid 1970s. Since then, she has dedicated her life to reducing environmental harm and educating others about what we owe the Earth.  Cath’s tireless advocacy for Antarctica, carried out in lockstep…

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