Elliott Oakley is a cultural anthropologist at the Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago, USA), where he works on an interdisciplinary team focused on conservation and community well-being in the Andes-Amazon region. Elliott’s research examines the relationship between political agency, sovereignty and environmental conservation in Guyana. His doctoral research at the University of Edinburgh showed how Waiwai people strategically build relationships with conservation partners and government officials that allow them to effectively make claims on powerful outsiders who can contribute to their goals for their livelihoods and land rights. In his current position, Elliott is expanding this work to the wider politics of conservation and land titling in Guyana, collaborating with indigenous communities navigating extractive economies, environmental governance strategies, and national conservation priorities. His research has been published in American Ethnologist, Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, and Etnofoor, and his collaborative film project “Kwaçi (Water Turtle)” premiered at the SALSA XIII conference. Elliott has actively participated in SALSA since 2017. As Academic Program Assistant for SALSA XIII, Elliott supported the design of the remote conference format, leading the organization of the Spanish-Portuguese-English live translation for the keynote and the design of the virtual lounge space. Since 2019, Elliott has also served as Programming Director for the Center for Research and Collaboration in the Indigenous Americas (CRACIA) at the University of Maryland, convening a speaker and workshop series with scholars and practitioners in the Andes and Amazon. He has previously taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz and University of San Francisco.