Kidan Araya is a climate communications professional with nearly a decade of experience working across Africa and the United States. Ms. Araya previously served as a 2021–2022 climate security fellow at the Center for Climate and Security where her works sat at the intersection of climate finance, climate security, natural resource governance, and social justice, and she supports innovative organizations working on the clean energy transition. Prior to the Center for Climate and Security, she served as a board member for the Africa Policy Accelerator, a network for the next generation of US- Africa policymakers at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC. Ms. Araya has testified before the US Congress about her experience working to combat the illicit natural resource trade in Africa, and was invited by the US Department of State to speak about illegal deforestation at the US Embassy in The Gambia.

Ms. Araya holds a master’s degree in geography from the University of Washington at Seattle and a bachelor’s degree in international relations and environmental studies from Beloit College. She was recently named as one of the top ten African voices on climate change on Twitter by Africa No Filter.