Kofi Akamani is a Professor of Forest Recreation and Conservation Social Science and Director of Graduate Study in the School of Forestry and Horticulture at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His multidisciplinary academic training is in the fields of development planning and the human dimensions of natural resource management. Kofi received his Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Idaho. Prior to that, he had obtained an MPhil in Culture, the Environment and Sustainability from the University of Oslo, as well as a BSc. degree in planning from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. His teaching and research agenda are aimed at gaining a theoretical understanding of human-environment interactions across multiple scales and also informing policies that promote human well-being and ecosystem health across the rural-urban continuum. He has extensive research experience on transitions in the governance of forests and water resources and their implications for the resilience of rural resource-dependent communities in Ghana, the US and elsewhere. Kofi has had the opportunity of collaborating with leading scientists across the US and internationally on several high-profile scientific assessments. He is an author of the ecosystems chapter of the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5), the US Government’s premier report on climate change that was published in 2023. He also recently completed his role as lead author of the nexus assessment report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Kofi is currently involved as author of the US Government’s First National Nature Assessment (NNA1), lead author of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Global Environment Outlook 7 report, and coordinating lead author of the resilience assessment chapter of International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) Forests for Social and Economic Resilience assessment. Kofi was recently appointed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine as a member of the US National Committee for the International Union of Biological Sciences. He is a recipient of the 2016 Early Career Faculty Excellence Award from the College of Agriculture at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, as well as the 2023 International Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Idaho’s College of Natural Resources.