E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation Elects New Board Members, Adds Staff to Advance Plan to Safeguard Global Biodiversity
Foundation Strengthens Capacity for Half-Earth Project.
DURHAM, N.C., Feb. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — The E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation has announced the election of four new members to its Board of Directors including; Caryl Hart, PhD, Dawn Wright, PhD, Keith Tuffley, and Stephen H. Lockhart, MD, PhD. The new Board of Directors’ appointments took place between February last year and January this year.
- Caryl Hart – Caryl is Commissioner, California Coastal Commission appointed by Speaker Anthony Rendon in 2019, and currently serves as Interim General Manager of the Sonoma County Agricultural and Open Space District. Caryl is an attorney with more than 25 years of advocacy, parks acquisition and management, scholarship and administrative experience. She served for 13 years as a member of the California State Parks Commission, including seven years as Chair. In 2014, Dr. Hart was appointed by then-Governor Jerry Brown to serve on the Parks Forward Commission to assist in forming a sustainable path forward for the California State Park System. From 2010 to 2017, she served as Director of Sonoma County Regional Parks.
- Dr. Dawn Wright –Dawn is Chief Scientist of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri), a world-leading geographic information system (GIS) software and data science company. Her board service has included the Science Advisory Boards of NOAA and the EPA, the National Academy of Sciences Ocean Studies Board, and the Science Advisory Boards of Conservation International, COMPASS Science Communication, and the Ocean Discovery XPRIZE. Dawn is also a Professor of Geography and Oceanography at Oregon State University, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geological Society of America, the American Association of Geographers, and the California Academy of Sciences, as well as Stanford’s Leopold Leadership Program.
- Keith Tuffley – Keith is Global Co-Head of the newly launched Sustainability & Corporate Transitions group at Citi, leading Citi’s ESG engagement with its corporate clients. Keith was CEO of The B Team, an NGO composed of over 28 CEOs of global companies, leading entrepreneurs, and civil society leaders, to drive a better way of doing business co-founded by Sir Richard Branson and Jochen Zeitz. He was an active participant in the Paris Climate Agreement process and the development of the latest UN Sustainable Development Goals. Keith was Head of Investment Banking and Partner of Goldman Sachs in Australia, and Head of the Industrials group across Europe. Keith is the Founder of Switzerland-based impact investing company, NEUW Ventures; Chairman of Global Footprint Network; Governor of WWF-Australia; and Global Ambassador of Wilderness Foundation Global.
- Dr. Stephen H. Lockhart – Stephen is a board-certified anesthesiologist, and Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Sutter Health in Northern California (retired). A Rhodes Scholar, with a Master’s degree in Economics from Oxford University, and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell, Dr. Lockhart served on the Board of Directors (including six years as Chair) of NatureBridge. An avid climber and backpacker, he has a long-standing passion for providing environmental science education and introducing our National Parks to an increasingly diverse population. Dr. Lockhart serves on the Boards of ECRI (a healthcare safety nonprofit), the National Parks Conservation Association, REI, and the David & Lucile Packard Foundation. Stephen also served on the National Parks Second Century Commission with E.O. Wilson.
David J. Prend, current Board Chair remarked, “E.O. Wilson’s life’s work continues to inspire conservation leaders, philanthropists and scientists alike. These new board members bring diverse perspectives and expand on an already highly-regarded group dedicated to ensuring the Foundation carries out it’s important mission of safeguarding the planet’s biodiversity through science.”
The foundation also announced the appointment of two new executive staff, including Vice President of Development, Amy Tidovsky, and Vice President, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Joel R. Johnson.
- Amy Tidovsky –Amy was appointed to lead fundraising in support of the foundation’s mission, strategies and projects. Previously, Amy spent more than 20 years with The Nature Conservancy, working on global philanthropy in major and principal gifts fundraising. Most recently, Amy served as North America Regional Director of Development for the Conservancy securing philanthropic support for a US-Indonesia debt-for-nature swap, a MacArthur Climate Challenge to promote climate and energy policy in the US.
- Joel R. Johnson –Joel was appointed to lead brand marketing, communications, and editorial to raise the visibility of the Foundation and its major program, The Half-Earth Project ®. Most recently, Joel was a founding partner in ad agency Admirable Devil, and Chief Marketing Officer of Trout Unlimited, the largest coldwater conservation organization in the US. Joel has held senior strategy and management roles at GMMB, Porter Novelli, Sapient Nitro, and DDB (Chicago, London), where he developed campaigns for the world’s most valuable brands including Gillette, the NBA, and Pepsi.
“These new appointments heed the urgency of the moment to advance the ambitious goal of Half-Earth and identify and conserve the places that will best protect the most biodiversity globally,” said Dr. Paula J. Ehrlich, President & CEO and Half-Earth Project Lead.
About the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation
The E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation’s mission is to foster a knowing stewardship of our world through biodiversity research and education initiatives that promote and inform worldwide preservation of our biological heritage. The Half-Earth Project® is a foundation initiative that is working to conserve half the Earth’s lands and seas to reverse the extinction crisis and safeguard the bulk of biodiversity for future generations.
Contact: Joel R. Johnson, jjohnson@eowilsonfoundation.org
