Growing up in the Equitoria region of South Sudan, a land once abundant in wildlife before the civil war, the seeds for a career in wildlife were planted early for African Wildlife Foundation's Conservation Program Director. Fiesta Warinwa began her career with African Wildlife Foundation in 1999 as an intern until being hired full time as a Landscape Conservation Officer. Fiesta spent several years directing AWF’s Samburu Heartland and later moved on to direct AWF’s program in the Kilimanjaro Heartland before moving on to oversee all of AWF’s program implementation activities for Kenya. Fiesta holds an M.S. in wildlife conservation and management from the University of Reading, UK.