Thought Leader: Elizabeth Teague

Elizabeth Teague (she/her/hers), Senior Director of Climate Resilience at Root Capital, is an expert working at the intersection of climate change, impact investing, and global development. She has been featured at conferences and events hosted by industry leaders, including the Global Coffee Platform, MIT’s Climate & Sustainability Consortium, the Specialty Coffee Association, CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, and The Chain Collaborative.

At Root Capital—a nonprofit that invests in small and growing agricultural enterprises to transform rural communities—Elizabeth leads the organization’s strategy to advance urgent climate action in frontline communities. As Senior Director, she collaborates with Root Capital staff and partners around the world, including farmer-allied businesses, multilateral organizations, corporations, and funders. Under her leadership, Root Capital deployed $239 million in climate-aligned financing from 2020-2023 and reached more than 472,000 farmers and employees.

Elizabeth’s climate change expertise has been featured in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, GreenBiz, Mongabay, Impact Alpha and more.

Elizabeth joined Root Capital in 2010, and she represents the organization in industry-leading coalitions, such as the ClimateShot Investor Coalition, climate-related working groups of the Global Impacting Investing Network, ANDE, and the Council for Smallholder Agricultural Finance. She is also an alumni adviser for Impact Frontiers. Previously, Elizabeth worked at the Asian Rural Institute in Japan. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College.

“These businesses in super remote places, with very limited resources, are already doing so much work to invest in climate action....If we could get them more money, and more incentives to do that work, they’ll really be able to show the way forward.”

Impact Alpha, April 28, 2023

Topics of Interest:

  • Climate change impacts in rural communities
  • Climate finance and innovation
  • Carbon-smart and regenerative agriculture
  • Agricultural enterprises as advocates of climate action in frontline communities
  • Impact measurement, monitoring and evaluation
  • Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies


Speaking Examples

To book Ana Zacapa for a speaking engagement or media interview, contact communications@rootcapital.org

About Root Capital

Root Capital invests in the growth of agricultural enterprises so they can transform rural communities. These enterprises purchase crops such as coffee, cocoa, or grains from smallholder farmers. With growth, they become engines of impact that can raise incomes, create jobs, empower women and young people, sustain peace, and preserve vulnerable ecosystems. Root Capital supplies these enterprises with vital resources: access to capital, trade and technical partners, training on financial management, and conservation practices. To date, Root Capital has distributed $1.85 billion to more than 768 enterprises and provided training to more than 1,800 enterprises—collectively improving the lives of 10 million people in farming communities.

Click here to download a PDF copy of Ana’s speaker profile.