Dr Isabella Guerrini de Claire has spent more than two decades weaving ecology, wellbeing, and community care into grounded, practical action. Born into an environmentalist household during the era that first revealed humanity’s planetary limits, she grew up with a deep awareness of humanity’s responsibility to protect the living world. Her studies in sustainable land management, agriculture, and ecology strengthened that early calling and opened the path for a life devoted to regeneration, resilience, and social inclusion. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Landscape Design and Planning, a Master’s degree in Sustainable Land Management, and a PhD in Land Restoration.

Her professional journey has unfolded across Canada, Indonesia, the Middle East, Italy, and the UK, coordinating climate, sustainability, and education initiatives that bridge environmental stewardship with human wellbeing. In 2007, inspired by the Center for Ecoliteracy in California, she co-founded an environmental school in Bologna dedicated to reconnecting families and vulnerable teenagers with nature and community. She later trained in systemic counselling with the Hellinger Schule, developing a grounded sensitivity to group dynamics, inclusion, and compassionate communication.

In 2011, life brought her to Scotland, a place that immediately felt like home. There, she began facilitating Nature Connection workshops, Experience Weeks, and a broad range of community programmes. In 2014, she launched the first Building Resilience investigation at the Findhorn Park, applying circular economy and Natural Step principles to assess long-term access to food, energy, and essential services. Many of those early insights now resonate strongly with PET’s mission of supporting community resilience and guaranteeing basic needs.

Over the next eight years, she worked with Scottish Government agencies on the Circular Economy Strategy, ran a climate consultancy, mentored nearly one hundred climate-innovation start-ups through the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation, and co-founded Green Grow, a multi-award-winning circular mushroom-foods company.

Her personal healing journey as a two-time cancer survivor led her to train with the University of Winchester as a plant-based nutrition coach. She now supports cancer patients and people in transition through a Gift Economy model based on reciprocity, care, and access for all. This commitment to equity and inclusion also informs her work as Operations, Communications, and Fundraising Manager for the Caring Community Circle, where she helps secure resources for community wellbeing, basic-needs access, inclusion programmes, and impact support.

Today, as Carbon Strategy Director for PET, she brings together these strands: ecology, community care, regeneration, and cooperative governance. Her approach is intentionally emergent: listening first, building strategy through collaboration, and grounding climate action in the lived realities of people’s needs. She believes that true resilience cannot be imposed; it must be co-created in relationship—between people, between sectors, and with the Earth itself.

Guided by the principles of Doughnut Economics and the Wellbeing Economy, she aims to support PET in continuing Findhorn’s legacy as a living laboratory where human and ecological communities can flourish together. Her work is rooted in a simple conviction: regeneration begins in relationships—care for the Earth, care for one another, and care for the systems that sustain life. Only through shared custodianship can communities thrive within the generous limits of our biosphere.