Sue Stolton has a degree in Social History and worked initially for a development agency. For the last 30 years her work has focused primarily on environmental issues – in the belief that we need to address the urgent crises facing our environment to ensure social equity and sustainable development. Sue works mainly on issues relating to protected areas, with a focus on management, and in particular the assessment of management effectiveness, issues related to understanding the wider values and benefits that protected areas can provide and the recognition of the importance of privately protected areas to achieving conservation goals.

Sue Stolton established Equilibrium Research in partnership with Nigel Dudley in 1991. Equilibrium Research has worked for over 70 organisations, large and small, around the world.

Sue is a fellow of UNEP-WCMC and a member of IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and the Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy.