P2P Team

 Christine  Zinnemann 

Co-Founder, Trustee

Christine Zinnemann was born in the Central Pacific on Tarawa, one of the Gilbert Islands in Micronesia. Her first memory was floating along the edge of an island lush with coconut trees, and a sparkling blue-green ocean teeming with fish, dolphins, sea turtles, and iridescent corals. Christine has spent years serving the people of the South Pacific from her home in the Pacific Palisades, California.

She is also a Marine Conservation Fellow for Conservation International, and the Cultural Ambassador to the Phoenix Islands Protected Area Trust. Along with these roles, Christine is co-founder of Pole-To-Pole Conservation.  In 2014, Christine became a member of the Kiribati delegations to the U.S. State Department Oceans summit, the UN meeting on Small Island Developing States held in Apia, Samoa, the World Parks Congress in Sydney, Australia. She accepted an award and gave a speech for President Anote Tong, from Prince Albert of Monaco and Queen Noor of Jordan. Christine made the acceptance speech on behalf of H.E Tong. In 2015 Christine was part of the Kiribati delegation to the United Nations General assembly. Christine was awarded an honorary masters degree in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic in 2018 for work on oceans, climate, and indigenous rights. She speaks six languages, likes to sit and work in her home garden overlooking the ocean with her three children and two dogs, plays tennis, and occasionally performs traditional Kiribati dances that are based on the movement of oceanic frigate birds.