Dr. Lucilla Spini is a biological anthropologist with expertise in human biology and primate behaviour as well as biodiversity conservation and international environmental policy.  She worked as an Associate Expert at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as a Programme Officer at both the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO of the UN) as well as the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and as Executive Officer  (Global Environmental Change and Human Health) at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).  Among her main achievements, she facilitated the development of the FAO/Italy cooperation “Working Together Towards the Biodiversity 2010 Target” and the strengthening of the UNEP/UNESCO Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP). She holds a B.A. (Hons.) in anthropology from New York University (USA), as well as an M.Sc. in human biology and D.Phil. in biological anthropology, both awarded from the University of Oxford (UK). Dr. Spini is also Adjunct Assistant Professor in Anthropology at the University of Waterloo (Canada) and Adjunct Professor in the School of Geography and Earth Sciences at McMaster University (Canada).

Spini left her role as IAP/IAMP Coordinator in 2013, when it was taken over by Peter McGrath.