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.