Atossa has been directing global campaigns for indigenous peoples rights and protection of tropical rainforests for over three decades. Atossa is the Founder and Board President of Amazon Watch, a nonprofit organization founded in 1996 to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of indigenous peoples of the Amazon Basin (www.amazonwatch.org). Atossa served as Amazon Watch's first Executive Director for 18 years and continues to support the organization's mission as Board President.

Currently Atossa is the director of global strategy for the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative working with an alliance of 30 indigenous nations to permanently protect 86 million acres of rainforests in the most biologically diverse ecosystem on Earth in Ecuador and Peru.