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Base of Operations: Washington, D.C. Education: B.S., University of Washington; Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz
Now vice president for research, conservation, and exploration at the National Geographic Society, John Francis began his career as a behavioral ecologist at 19 and over the next 15 years studied more than half of all seal and sea lion species. After earning his Ph.D., he spent five years as a postdoctoral fellow and research associate at the Smithsonian Institution.
Two grants from the National Geographic Society allowed Francis to study the little-known Juan Fernández fur seal on isolated islands off Chile. A film of this research was the beginning of a career in wildlife filmmaking.
In six years with National Geographic Television, Francis covered everything from chimps and tigers to whales and sharks. For much of this time, he also served on the Society's Committee for Research and Exploration, offering expertise on marine mammals.
Today Francis directs funding of these disciplines through the Society's Committee for Research and Exploration, Conservation Trust, and Expeditions Council and promotes these groups' efforts worldwide.
Terry D. Garcia
Base of Operations: Washington, D.C. Education: B.S., American University; J.D., George Washington University
Terry D. Garcia is executive vice president for mission programs for the National Geographic Society. He is responsible for the Society's core mission programs: the Committee for Research and Exploration, Expeditions Council, Conservation Trust, Geography Education Outreach Program, Education Foundation, Development Office, Explorers Hall museum, geography competitions, and lectures program.
Prior to joining the Society in 1999, Garcia was the assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere at the U.S. Department of Commerce. He was also deputy administrator of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In this role he directed and coordinated U.S. coastal, ocean, and atmospheric programs, including the National Ocean Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, the National Weather Service, and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service.
At NOAA Garcia also managed and directed the agency's endangered-species and habitat-conservation planning programs, Clean Water Act implementation, and development of the U.S. National Marine Sanctuaries system. From 1994 to 1996, Garcia was NOAA's general counsel. In that capacity he led the implementation of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Restoration Plan for Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska.
Prior to entering government service, Garcia was a practicing lawyer. An avid fly fisherman and scuba diver, he has spent many hours hiking, fishing, camping, and exploring the U.S. coastal and inland wilderness areas. He lives with his wife, Mary, and their two children, in Potomac, Maryland.
Nancy Knowlton
Base of Operations: San Diego, California, Education: B.S., Harvard University; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Nancy Knowlton is director of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at the University of California's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where she also is a professor of marine biology. In addition, she maintains a part-time position at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, where she pursues her research on coral reefs.
Known for her studies of marine diversity, Knowlton is largely responsible for the now widespread recognition that estimates of marine diversity are probably too low by a factor of ten.
Knowlton is a member of Conservation International's Marine Advisory Panel and the U.S. National Committee for the Census of Marine Life. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, the goal of which is to promote communication between scientists and the world at large.
Knowlton's work has been featured around the world in print, on the radio, and in film. She has provided advice on marine biodiversity issues to the World Bank, the Natural History Museum in London, and the Swedish and Taiwanese governments.
Sarah Laskin
Policy Analysis Base: of Operations: Washington, D.C. Education: B.A., Harvard University; M.E.M., Duke University
Sarah Laskin is vice president for public programs and business development for the National Geographic Society's mission programs. Prior to joining National Geographic, Sarah spent five years working on ocean, coastal, and fishery policy issues in the Clinton Administration.
Under President Bill Clinton, Laskin served as associate director for fisheries and coastal issues at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. She was also the program examiner for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration programs at the White House's Office of Management and Budget.
Laskin was involved in organizing the U.S. Commerce Department and U.S. Navy's National Ocean Conference in 1998. She was a co-author of the Clinton Cabinet's "Looking to the Sea: America's Ocean Future," a special report on ocean policy.
As a conservation fellow at World Wildlife Fund, Laskin co-authored a paper on U.S. Marine Protected Areas for a special issue of Oceanography magazine.
Thomas E. Lovejoy
Biologist Base of Operations: Washington, D.C. Education: B.S. and Ph.D., Yale University
Chair of the Conservation Trust's advisory board, Thomas E. Lovejoy is also the president of the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment—a nonprofit institution dedicated to improving the scientific and economic foundation for environmental policy through collaboration among industry, government, academia, and environmental organizations.
In the past Lovejoy worked for the World Bank as chief biodiversity advisor and lead specialist for the environment for Latin America. He also served as the senior advisor to the president of the United Nations Foundation, as the assistant secretary for environmental and external affairs for the Smithsonian Institution, and as executive vice president of World Wildlife Fund-U.S. He retains his link with the Smithsonian as a research associate of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
Lovejoy conceived the idea for the Minimum Critical Size of Ecosystems project. The project was to identify a minimum size of tropical forest habitat that would maintain most of the biotic diversity represented in an intact ecosystem. He also originated the concept of debt-for-nature swaps, which ease a country's debt burden in exchange for conservation actions by the debtor nation. He is also the founder of the public television series Nature.
Lovejoy is past president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, past chairman of the United States Man and Biosphere Program, and past president of the Society for Conservation Biology. In 1998 Brazil awarded him the Grand Cross of the Order of Scientific Merit. In April 2001 he received the John and Alice Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.
Lovejoy serves on numerous scientific and conservation boards and advisory groups, including the New York Botanical Garden, the Committee for the National Institute for the Environment, the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew (London), the Wildlife Preservation Trust, Resources for the Future, Woods Hole Research Center, and the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies.
Stuart L. Pimm
Base of Operations: Durham, North Carolina, Education: B.S., Oxford University; Ph.D., New Mexico State University
Currently the Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University, Stuart Pimm became a conservation biologist after watching species go extinct in Hawaii in the 1970s. That experience led to his commitment to study the scientific issues behind the global loss of biological diversity.
Pimm has written nearly 200 scientific papers, including 3 review articles in the journals Nature and Science. He has written three books: The World According to Pimm: A Scientist Audits the Earth, Food Webs, and The Balance of Nature?: Ecological Issues in the Conservation of Species and Communities.
Pimm's research covers why (and how quickly) species become extinct, the global patterns of habitat loss and species extinction, the role of introduced species in causing extinction, and, importantly, the habitat-management consequences of this research.
The biologist's current work includes studying endangered species and ecosystem restoration in the Florida Everglades, setting priorities for protected areas in the Atlantic coast forest of Brazil and for savanna ecosystems in southern Africa, and tracking jaguars in the rain forests of Central America and fossas in the dry forests of Madagascar.
Pimm also carries the title of "extraordinary professor" at the Conservation Ecology Research Unit, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Peter H. Raven
Base of Operations: St. Louis, Missouri, Education: B.S., University of California, Berkeley; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Chair of the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration, Peter H. Raven is one of the world's leading botanists and advocates of conservation and biodiversity. For three decades, he has headed the Missouri Botanical Garden, an institution he nurtured into a world-class center for botanical research and education and horticultural display.
Described by Time magazine as a "Hero for the Planet," Raven champions research around the world to preserve endangered plants and is a leading advocate for conservation and a sustainable environment.
In recognition of his work in science and conservation, Raven is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the prestigious International Prize for Biology from the government of Japan and the U.S. National Medal of Science, the country's highest award for scientific accomplishment. He has held Guggenheim and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowships.
Raven was a member of President Bill Clinton's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. He also served for 12 years as home secretary of the National Academy of Sciences and is a member of the academies of science in Argentina, Brazil, China, Denmark, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, the U.K., and several other countries.
The author of numerous books and reports, both popular and scientific, Raven co-wrote Biology of Plants, an internationally best-selling textbook, now in its sixth edition. He also co-authored Environment, a leading textbook on the environment.
Melanie L.J. Stiassny
Ichthyology Base of Operations: New York, New York Education: Ph.D., University of London
Curator at the American Museum of Natural History's Department of Ichthyology, Melanie L.J. Stiassny's research centers on the evolutionary biology of fishes, particularly the tropical, spiny-finned fishes of the family Cichlidae.
An expert in species classification and evolutionary-history studies, Stiassny often conducts fieldwork in freshwater systems throughout Africa and Madagascar and aims to integrate her findings into conservation planning.
Increasingly Stiassny's work centers on issues of competition for freshwater resources and its impact on aquatic biodiversity. She also focuses on attempts to slow the loss of aquatic biodiversity.
In addition to her museum position, Stiassny is a professor at Columbia University. She advises the World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, and other scientific and environmental organizations. She is also on the editorial board of the journal Conservation Biology.
Patricia Wright
Anthropology Base of Operations: Stony Brook, New York Education: B.S., Hood College; Ph.D., City University of New York
A Conservation Trust advisory board member since 2002, Patricia Wright is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is also a professor of ecology and evolution in SUNY's graduate program. Since 1992 she has served as executive director of Stony Brook's Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments.
Based on her research in Peru's Manu National Park, Wright's dissertation on the behavior and ecology of the world's only nocturnal monkey—the owl monkey—has become a classic. After researching the reproductive physiology and behavior of tarsiers at North Carolina's Duke University Primate Center and in Malaysia and the Philippines, she became an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Anthropology at Duke.
In 1986, while on an exploratory expedition in Madagascar, Wright and colleagues discovered a species of lemur, the golden bamboo lemur. When this newfound species was threatened by timbering in the Ranomafana rain forest, Wright's attention turned to conservation.
Wright spearheaded an integrated conservation and development project at Ranomafana that encouraged protection and conservation of endemic flora and fauna as well as rural development, education, and health services.
Wright has also studied the behavioral ecology of nonhuman primates in South America, Asia, and Africa. Her African research, in Madagascar, has concentrated on a 17-year behavioral and demographic study of the Milne-Edwards sifaka.
In 1989 Wright became a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellow. In 1995 the president of Madagascar awarded her his country's National Medal of Honor. She has been a member of the National Geographic Society's Conservation Trust advisory board since 2002.
