Carole Excell

Waverley Street Foundation | Rockville, United States

Carole is strategy director at the Waverley Street Foundation, where she supports community-led climate solutions around the world.

As an environmental lawyer, she works with civil society organizations, activists, and governments in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean promoting environmental democracy and environmental justice, with a special focus on inclusive and equitable development. 

Carole’s passion is the expansion of civil space, environmental rights, and protection of environmental and land defenders. She has over 15 years of experience in providing legal and policy development advice, creating advocacy strategies, and developing and managing coalitions and networks like The Access Initiative and Defending Land and Environmental Defenders. She looks to engage with new forms of civic participation to improve climate governance.

Carole has published reports on environmental rights, transparency in natural resource management and plastic pollution.

Previously, she was the director of environmental democracy practice at the World Resources Institute. She also served as coordinator for the Freedom of Information Unit of the Cayman Islands Government, worked with the Carter Center as field representative in Jamaica, and worked for the government of Jamaica on environmental and planning issues.

Carole has a masters’ degree in environmental law from Aberdeen University and a law degree from the University of the West Indies.