JUDY KEPHER-GONA

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BASECAMP FOUNDATION, KENYA

Judy Kepher-Gona is the Executive Director of Basecamp Foundation Kenya. Basecamp is a "For-Community-Benefit" organization that supports the development of sustainable tourism destinations. The goal is to create an enabling environment for community wealth creation, ecotourism investments and conservation. In her work Judy engages with host communities, ecotourism investors and organizations, social investors, philanthropists and like-minded organizations to come up with innovative approaches to natural resource wealth creation, community empowerment, resource management and traveler donations.

Before joining Basecamp, Judy worked at Ecotourism Kenya for nine years. EK is a private sector association that promotes ecotourism, educates and supports tourism businesses to embrace sustainable tourism practices, and lobbies for overall best practices tourism. As the founder CEO, Judy was instrumental in guiding the growth of the concept in Kenya. It was during her tenure at Ecotourism Kenya, that the society developed an ecotourism certification scheme in response to global trends.

For over 12 years Judy has been in the forefront of Ecotourism evolution in Kenya and kept pace with global trends in sustainable tourism. In recognition of her work, she was recently elected to the board of Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and The International Ecotourism Society (TIES). Judy was a site evaluator for T4T Awards in 2008.