Lenke leads two global programmes of capacity development, research, advocacy and conservation action focused on strengthening grassroots conservation organisations and on the linkages between biodiversity, well-being and human rights. She has responsibility, among others, for building the capacity of the BirdLife Partnership to mobilize grassroots civil society through local conservation groups, developing individual skills of early and mid-career conservation leaders and strengthening the development and cohesion of the BirdLife network.
Before her role with BirdLife, she worked extensively on developing conservation organisations in Eastern and Southern Europe, Central Asia and the Mediterranean. With a background in natural resource management, Lenke is a Fellow of the Intergovernmental Science – Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and has an Mphil in Conservation Leadership from the University of Cambridge. She is also a Kinship Conservation Fellow and is currently undertaking a degree in Social Innovation at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, with a focus on novel resourcing models for conservation.