Connie is an Environmental Economist with fourteen years of experience in forest and conservation related issues; eight of which linked to climate change mitigation. Connie worked at the IUCN linked to the Global Forest and Climate Change Programme for ten years, including four years in the Union coordinating the REDD+ portfolio of the GFCCP. She also worked as an Ecosystem Specialist in Fauna and Flora International and has been coordinating the UN REDD Programme in Ecuador since 2013.

She has broad experience developing, coordinating and monitoring projects at different geographic scale and with different donors. She has experience in the design and facilitation of national and sub-national processes for the development of National REDD+ Strategies; experience and awareness in promoting rights-based approaches in the design of mitigation to climate change and in general for the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources.

Connie has years of experience in international negotiations under the UNFCCC, and is a member of International Standards Committee for the REDD + SES Initiative (2011) and observer in the "Policy Board" of the UN-REDD Programme (2010-2011).