Melanie Border Short CV

Following study as a mature student and subsequent roles in conservation, education and community engagement, Melanie Border became involved with Geopark work in her home town of Torquay, UK, in 2006 where she went on to became the Coordinator of the English Riviera UNESCO Global Geopark in 2007 alongside being a member of the European Geopark Network Coordination Committee (both of these roles continue to date). From that point her, focus, pragmatism and natural diplomacy led her to be elected as Chair the UK Committee for UNESCO Global Geoparks (2012 to 2017) whist also sitting on the Advisory Committee of the European Geoparks Network. It was during this time that she worked closely with the UK National Commission for UNESCO and played a fundamental role as a member of the multi-national Geopark working group collaborating directly with Member States on the development of the Geopark arm of International Geoscience and Geoparks Programme, introduced in Nov 2015. In 2016, she became an elected member of the Global Geopark Network Executive Board, a role continued to date, and took up a four year term as a member of the inaugural UNESCO Global Geoparks Council. Melanie is also listed on the UNESCO Global Geopark evaluators roster and carries out both evaluation and revalidation missions of aspiring and existing UGGps