Meet the newest members of the AGCI team!
AGCI is thrilled to welcome two new colleagues to our core team: Olya Jerard, AGCI’s new Vice President, Finance and Operations, and Dr. Dhruv Patel‑Tupper, joining as Program Development Manager with AGCI’s Workshops program. Each brings deep experience, fresh energy, and a strong commitment to helping AGCI advance actionable global change science and solutions.
Olya Jerard: Strengthening teams and systems through thoughtful leadership
An empathetic, innovative, and solutions-oriented leader, Olya brings extensive expertise in strategic planning and execution, operations and financial management, and organizational development in the nonprofit and international development sectors. Prior to joining AGCI, she worked in more than 20 countries around the globe and has held a variety of leadership roles with dynamic, mission-driven organizations working in some of the world’s most demanding operating environments.
“The opportunity with AGCI is a wonderful match for the work I love to do and for the experience that I bring from working with other mission-driven organizations in the international development context,” says Olya. “Global change and climate change are some of the most profound challenges of our time, and I’m grateful to be part of AGCI’s efforts to meet those challenges.”
A native of Almaty, Kazakhstan, she recently spent a year living and working in Berlin, Germany, where she led a US State Department program focused on strengthening community security in Northeastern Syria. Olya lives in Northern Vermont with her husband and two sons, enjoying skiing in the winter, mountain biking in the summer, and grumbling about the weather year-round.
Dhruv Patel-Tupper: Weaving global change conversations into actionable narratives
Dhruv steps into the role of Program Development Manager, where he’ll play a key part coordinating fundraising and managing end-to-end planning and execution of AGCI’s longstanding interdisciplinary workshop series. With over 10 years of experience driving cutting-edge scientific research and empowering diverse stakeholders to build systems-level impact, Dhruv is well situated to support the smooth implementation of AGCI workshops and cultivate new innovations.
“I love tasting menus, and AGCI feels like just that—with flavors spanning the environmental spectrum. On the workshops team, I’ll get to interact with world experts across so many sectors and disciplines that I wouldn’t get to engage with otherwise. I’m excited to be able to amplify the important work they do in my new role at AGCI.”
Before joining AGCI, Dhruv shaped strategic emerging technology investments at the National Science Foundation and supported international agricultural climate policy at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he served as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow. Dhruv lives in Portland, Oregon, where you can find him walking his big dog, baking sweet treats that complement his husband’s delicious cooking, and trying to grow Gujarati vegetables to impress his grandma.
Hitting the ground running
Both Olya and Dhruv are busy settling into their new positions and finding their stride with the organization. “It’s challenging to be the new person,” admits Olya, but she’s “looking forward to becoming a trusted business partner to everyone across the organization” and hopes “colleagues will come to me and my team to find actionable solutions that help propel our impactful work.”
With AGCI’s next workshop season fast approaching, Dhruv also looks forward to making his mark on the Institute. “AGCI has built its legacy on the interdisciplinary workshops we’ve hosted over the last 36 years. How can we make the most of these convenings and better support the amazing scientists and practitioners to make these conversations actionable? The workshops are all puzzle pieces to AGCI’s story, and I’m excited to help assemble them into a narrative that continues to drive global change action in an ecosystem where that’s becoming increasingly difficult. Because the return on investment—in climate action, collaboration, and progress—is well worth the effort.”