Louise Lezy-Bruno

Paris

Louise LEZY-BRUNO ([email protected]) is Deputy Director of the Environment at the Essonne Departmental Council (France), which manages natural sites in the suburbs of Paris. In addition to a Graduate degree in Architecture, she holds a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and a PhD in Geography from the University of Paris-Nanterre-La Défense. She works on the cities-nature relationship and, in particular, on urban natural areas. A founding Member of the Libertas Institute for Applied Research, she launched in 2009 the Urban Protected Areas Network Program (upa-network.org). In this capacity, she coordinates a research program on the “Urban National Parks in Emerging Countries” (2012-2015), funded by the French National Research Agency. On behalf of the UPA Network, she has organized the BiodiverCities Conferences cycle, which aims to promote dialogue between cities and natural areas practitioners and the scientific community. She is a member of the IUCN-WCPA, working as Deputy Chair of the “Urban Specialist Group”.