Dr. Nfamara K. Dampha is the Center Director at the University of Minnesota's NatCap TEEMs Research Center, of which he is also a Co-Founder. He is committed to fortifying NatCap’s partnership with stakeholders at local, regional, and global levels, aiming to advance natural capital accounting and ecosystem service valuation for informed decision-making towards a sustainable future for all. His research focuses on the intersection of climate change adaptation, natural capital accounting, and ecosystem service modeling, including understanding and identifying policy-relevant solutions for addressing forced displacement, climate injustice, maladaptation, loss and damage, and climate financing gaps for strengthening community resilience and ensuring a just, sustainable transition for all. He enjoys GIS-based remote sensing applications for ecosystem services assessment, climate risk assessment, and hazard mapping.

Dr. Dampha received his Ph.D. and conducted a Postdoc at UMN focused on climate change adaptation and ecosystem service assessment and valuation; his Master's degree was in International Development Practice from UMN’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. He has over 15 years of professional, academic, and leadership experience collaborating with the World Bank, government institutions, universities, and global nonprofits. Outside of his role as Center Director, he is also a Lead Climate Negotiator for The Gambia and the 45^th Least Developed Countries at the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and a World Bank Senior Climate Change Consultant with extensive operational and analytical experience spanning 4 years. He enjoys stakeholder engagement and GIS-based remote sensing applications.