Hoover Institution Introduces 2026 Environmental Entrepreneur Fellowship Cohort

The Hoover Institution is proud to announce the 2026 cohort of eight professionals named to its highly selective Enviropreneur Fellowship Program.

This fellowship, falling within Hoover's Markets vs. Mandates Research Program, invites conservation professionals and innovators in environmental technologies to apply market solutions to pressing environmental issues, combining intellectual rigor and entrepreneurial spirit to foster meaningful change.

"Successful enviropreneurs convert economic prosperity into environmental health and vice versa. This program aims to amplify their success by increasing their visibility and helping them see hidden opportunities and barriers," said Senior Fellow Dominic Parker, who directs Markets vs. Mandates alongside Senior Fellow Terry L. Anderson.

The Hoover Enviropreneur Fellowship integrates entrepreneurial insight and academic expertise to develop profitable businesses that enhance environmental quality and conservation. Fellows' business ventures produce marketable products and services without reliance on government funding. Their work helps demonstrate how environmental markets can outpace traditional government interventions in both efficiency and cost-effectiveness, and how institutional design helps markets work better.

The fellowship is a nonresidential program tailored for midcareer professionals who have a minimum of five years of hands-on experience in conservation. Throughout the fellowship, which spans from March 2026 to March 2027. participants will engage with Hoover Institution scholars and Stanford faculty.

Allowing participants to integrate the fellowship experience with their ongoing professional commitments, it will encompass three in-person modules hosted at the Hoover Institution on Stanford University's campus. The first module will occur in early May, during Hoover's annual Markets vs. Mandates conference.

The second module of the program, in October 2026, will help fellows refine their business ventures through workshops with Hoover and Stanford scholars. For the final module of the program, in March 2027, all eight professionals will present their ventures. All enviropreneurs will also be invited to attend the 2027 Markets vs. Mandates conference. Between modules, virtual sessions will provide continuous support to fellows to advance their ventures.

Meet Hoover's latest cohort of Enviropreneur Fellows:

Bridget Adams is a nature and climate finance specialist with over five years of experience designing innovative financial mechanisms to mobilize private investment for conservation outcomes. She works at the Zoological Society of London leading nature finance programs across Africa and Asia, including blended finance models and conservation outcome bonds for ecosystem restoration and human-wildlife coexistence.

Fela Akinse is a multiaward-winning entrepreneur and inventor holding multiple global patents relating to modular footwear made from ocean-reclaimed plastic waste and using carbon decomposition technology-shoes that capture carbon dioxide and convert it to oxygen through the natural compression of walking. He founded Salubata, backed by Techstars, Render Capital, LACI, and Black Ambition Prize, growing it to a company with a presence in more than forty countries.

Temra Costa is the director of Regenerative Forest Solutions, a nonprofit focused on research, education, and implementation of innovative approaches to forest health, including wood utilization and product development. She leads cross-sector initiatives and advises corporations, nonprofits, public agencies, and philanthropic partners on strategies related to ecological forestry, land stewardship, and forest-based bioeconomy development.

Nic De Castro is the founder and CEO of LandTrust, a marketplace that helps landowners generate income by offering access for outdoor recreation, including hunting, fishing, and camping. He founded LandTrust in 2019 to modernize how private land is accessed and monetized, replacing outdated, broker-driven models with a transparent, technology-enabled platform.

Gawie Kanjemba is a Namibian lawyer, an energy specialist, and the founder of Swangeni, an advisory firm specializing in interdisciplinary solutions for a sustainable future. As Namibia's economic advisor for climate change, he designs market-based financial frameworks for energy transition.

Juye Kim is a cross-sector energy and AI infrastructure leader driving practical solutions at the intersection of data centers, power systems, and energy transition. She brings over a decade of experience across the United States and Asia leading initiatives in distributed energy resources, demand response, and energy efficiency. Kim's recent work focuses on addressing the rapidly growing power demand driven by AI and data centers, with an emphasis on solutions that enhance reliability and reduce energy consumption.

Annalyn Lavey built a foundation guiding mergers and acquisitions with Fortune 500 companies before spending a decade developing four major food, fiber, and fuel projects-assembling coalitions of producers, foundations, family offices, financial institutions, and local and Indigenous communities across complex landscapes. Most recently, as managing director at Hope Rock, she oversaw a large-scale land portfolio strategy in the Snake River Basin, where ecological restoration and investor returns worked in tandem.

Karina Yamamoto is the cofounder and CEO of GridBrid, a cleantech company redefining how hybrid power plants are planned, built, and scaled to accelerate the global transition to net zero. An award-winning innovator, she has been recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30, the Akimoto Award, and the Peres Innovation Award for her contributions to sustainable energy innovation.

More information about the Enviropreneur Fellowship Program can be found here.

For coverage opportunities, contact Jeffrey Marschner, 202-760-3187, [email protected] .