As president of the Rainforest Alliance, Tensie Whelan oversees a worldwide staff of 120 who serves to care for endangered environments as well as the people who live and work there.

The Rainforest Alliance devised standards for a certification system of eco-labeled goods which encouraged more organic and environmentally friendly practices on the farms. Such practices included the use of fewer pesticides and a reduction in the amount of clear cutting in the growth of products like bananas and coffee. Farms worldwide that produced products like coffee, fruit, and timber, agreed to give their employees living wages, health care, and access to clean water. Whelan and the Rainforest Alliance worked with farms to meet Alliance standards for workers' rights and then encouraged corporations to buy products grown by these farms.

Through arranged agreements, Whelan shows large corporations like Kraft Foods, Chiquita and Ikea the benefits of buying products produced by farms with certified standards. Whelan convinced companies that consumers would pay more for these certified products. The idea took off in Europe faster than in the United States, still Whelan continues to make pave the way anywhere possible.

Whelan has worked in the environmental field for over 25 years. In 1986, she began her professional career as an editor at Ambio, a journal which focused on international environmental issues. Later in 1989, she took a position at the National Audubon Society, becoming the environmental group's vice president of information. She was the youngest person to hold a vice president position at the National Audubon Society. Whelan left the National Audubon Society in 1992 to become the executive director of the New York League of Conservation Voters, where she spent five years. She moved on in 1997 and worked as a management consultant to nonprofit organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund.

Whelan serves on the boards of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Coalition and Social Accountability International, is a member of the advisory board for corporate social responsibility at Fortis, as well as the sustainable agriculture advisory board for Unilever, sits on the governing body of the U.N. Foundation's World Heritage Alliance, and is the co-chair of the steering committee of the Sustainable Food Lab. She holds an M.A. in International Communication from American University's School of International Service and a B.A. in Political Science from New York University. Whelan's published work includes one of the first books on ecofriendly tourism, Nature Tourism: Managing for the Environment (1991, Island Press).