Amielle's portrait.

Amielle DeWan, PhD

Founder, Executive Director

I founded IbD because I’m passionate about bridging science, strategy, and leadership to help individuals, teams, and organizations tackle complex challenges.

My work often focuses on partnering with executive leaders to clarify strategy, foster collaboration, and measure what matters—turning big ideas into actionable plans and meaningful impact. I love connecting with passionate, dedicated people across sectors and introducing tools and frameworks that help them work better, think bigger, and see their progress clearly.

Contact Me: amielle@impactbydesigninc.org

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Areas of Specialty

I’m IbD’s go-to for turning organizational strategy and learning into practical systems that drive impact—especially when it comes to MEL, institutional strategy, and board development.

Strategy & Program Planning

Facilitation, Training & Workshop Design

Organizational Development

Monitoring, Evaluation, & Learning

Conservation & Social Science

The Work I Do

I help mission-driven organizations bring clarity and structure to their strategies—aligning vision, people, and systems so they can make measurable progress toward their goals.

My work blends strategy design, learning, and organizational development to turn ideas into action and impact, including:

Developing organizational, programmatic, and board-level strategies that connect long-term vision to on-the-ground implementation.

Designing monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems; developing KPIs and Balanced Scorecards; and embedding practical ways to measure what matters.

Facilitating training, coaching, and board development to strengthen leadership, decision-making, and organizational culture.

Supporting teams through change management, structured decision-making, and integration of impact and business processes.

Guiding adaptation planning and resilience strategies that help organizations and ecosystems thrive in changing conditions.

Fun Fact

I can recognize most North American birds by their song.

What It’s Like to Work with Me

Working together often feels both grounding and energizing—people feel cared for as individuals, supported as professionals, and confident that “we’ve got this.” I strive to create an environment where teams know I understand their context, science, and goals, and that I’m in it with them as a trusted partner.

    • PhD in Ecology, Biostatistics, GIS - Cornell

    • MS in Biodiversity Conservation & Public Policy - SUNY Albany

    • BA - Biology, SUNY Binghamton

    • Othman, N. , Mustapah, M., Quilter, A., and DeWan, A. 2022. Understanding barriers and benefits to adopting elephant coexistence practices in oil palm plantation landscapes in Lower Kinabatangan, Sabah. Frontiers in Conservation Science. Volume 3.

    • Impact by Design and Mercurio, S. 2018. JGI Standards: Guide for design, implementation, and learning. Curriculum for strategic planning and adaptive management for the Jane Goodall Institute. Vienna, AA.

    • DeWan, A., Green, K., Xiaohong, L., and Hayden, D. 2013. Using social marketing tools to increase fuel- efficient stove adoption for conservation results. Journal of Conservation Evidence, 10: 37-41.

    • DeWan, A., and Zipkin, E. 2010. An integrated sampling and analysis approach for improved biodiversity monitoring. Environmental Management 45: 1223 -1230.

    • DeWan, A., Dubois, N., Theoharides, K, and Boshoven, J. 2010. Understanding the impacts of climate change on fish and wildlife in North Carolina. Defenders of Wildlife, Washington DC, Report, 200 pp

  • Conversational in French

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