FIJI COUNTRY PROGRAM 2015

THE WCS TEAM
Sangeeta Mangubhai, Director – Fiji Program
Dr. Sangeeta Mangubhai joined WCS-Fiji in 2014 as the Deputy Director, and was
promoted in December to the Director’s position. She has worked on marine
science and conservation in Australia, East Africa, Indonesia and the South
Pacific. She completed her Ph.D. in 2007 through Southern Cross University in
Lismore, Australia, looking at reproduction and recruitment of corals in Kenya.
Since then she has been working on designing marine protected areas, marine spatial planning,
coral reef and invertebrate fisheries, environmental policy, and climate change. She is a
specialist in designing monitoring programs to understand impacts of disturbances on coral reef
communities, and the return of investment of conservation strategies. She is currently the Co-
Chair for the Executive Committee for the Women in Fisheries Network-Fiji, a member of the
Scientific Advisory Committee for the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, editor for the journal
Pacific Conservation Biology, and an adjunct scientist with the New England Aquarium.
Stacy Jupiter, Director – Melanesia Program
Dr. Stacy Jupiter has been working with WCS since 2008, first as the Fiji
Country Director and more recently as the Melanesia Director. After
completing a Bachelor degree in biology at Harvard University, she worked
as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Gabon. Her Ph.D. research through the
University of California, Santa Cruz focused on linkages between land use
and downstream impacts to water quality and nearshore coral reefs, topics which she
continued to develop as a postdoctoral fellow with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef
Studies in Australia. With the WCS Fiji team, Stacy has been working on assessing the
effectiveness of marine protected areas to increase the abundance and size of food fish of
importance to local communities. In addition, she is trying to integrate connectivity science into
development of a national system of protected areas for Fiji to preserve ecosystem services,
livelihoods and human health. She will continue to integrate these topics across the Melanesia,
while initiating new WCS programs in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Nischal Narain, Finance Manager
Nischal Narain joined WCS-Fiji in 2008 as Finance Manager. He holds a Masters
degree in Business Administration (MBA) with University of the South Pacific.
He previously worked with Pacific Theological College as Director of Finance
and Administration and WWF South Pacific as Finance Manager. Nischal
specializes in budget preparation, financial monitoring and reporting, cash flow,
and cash forecasting. He looks after the after information technology and also involved in local
corporate funding. He also helps to oversee the operations of the WCS-Fiji office.
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