Sulan Chen

Background

About Sulan Chen

Born and raised in a remote mountainous village in Southern China, Sulan is inspired to protect our natural environment, and help marginalized people and communities around the world. She believes that cultivating human compassionate capacity, transforming human mindsets, and shifting societal behaviors for collective self discipline are key to harmonizing human-environment relationships, sustaining ecosystems, advancing humanity, and achieving holistic human wellbeing. Sulan is an experienced development practitioner with more than 20 years of experiences working with UNDP, UNEP, the World Bank Group and academia. Currently, Sulan is the Principal Technical Advisor and Global Lead for UNDP's Plastics Offer, leading UNDP's plastics policy/strategy formulation, portfolio development/implementation, partnership development/resource mobilization, research, knowledge diffusion, communications, advocacy and networking. Prior to this position, Sulan was the Programme Advisor for the GEF Small Grants Program (SGP) that has supported more than local communities in 133 countries. She led the global policy development, strategic positioning, implementation, knowledge management and advocacy for SGP’s international waters and chemicals and waste portfolio development, and oversees country programs in Asia, Europe and CIS countries. Sulan has published several books and a number of articles in peer-reviewed journals. She holds a PhD and a Master’s degree from the University of Maryland at the College Park, and received her BA degree from Nankai University, China.