WLT-US Staff

• Byron Swift
  Executive Director and Secretary
  
  Byron has dedicated much of his career over the past 23 years to helping local partners establish and support protected areas throughout Latin America. Notable successes include establishment of the 60 square mile Crooked Tree Sanctuary in Belize, the initial purchase of 11,000 acres that led to the creation of the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala, declaration of the 65,000 hectare Cordillera de Colan reserve in Peru, protection of 20,000 hectares of critical sites in Ecuador, and establishment of the Cani Araucaria Reserve in Chile.
  
  Byron most recently worked for the Environmental Law Institute for a decade, where he wrote Legal Tools and Incentives for Private Lands Conservation in Latin America: Building Models for Success, and published widely on issues involving biodiversity and natural resources management, industrial pollution and climate change. He previously directed the United States office of IUCN, where he initiated programs to strengthen national funds for the environment, and for non governmental participation in multilateral agencies and the Global Environment Facility. He previously worked for WWF, served in the legal office for parks and wildlife of the U.S. Dept of the Interior, and spent 12 years as international program officer for the Wildwings and Underhill Foundations.
  
  Byron graduated from Columbia Law School in 1978 and from Stanford University in Economics in 1975. He has served on offical US delegations to the Global Environmental Facility and international conventions, on the Advisory Committee for USAID, and received the keys to Lima, Peru and Guatemala City for his conservation efforts.
  
  
  
• Dr. Robert S. Ridgely
  Deputy Director
  
  Robert is a founder of the Ecuador-based bird-conservation organization, Fundacion Jocotoco, and presently serves as the Chairman of the Board. He is a leading expert on the birds of South America and a proponent of private reserve systems as a conservation strategy for endangered tropical bird species. Previously, he was Director of International Conservation at National Audubon Society and the Director of the Center for Neotropical Ornithology at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia (ANSP). He is an ornithologist and the author of many important books on Neotropical birds, including the acclaimed Birds of Panama (1976 and 1989), Birds of South America (vols. 1 and 2, 1989 and 1994), and Birds of Ecuador (2001). Robert received a B.A. in History from Princeton University (1971); an M.Sc. in Zoology, Duke University (1975); and a Ph.D. in Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University (1981). In 2001 he received the Eisenmann Medal from the Linnaean Society.
  
  
  
• Dr. Paul Salaman
  Director of Conservation
  
  At the age of eight Paul met Sir David Attenborough and became enthused by conservation and natural history and by age 14 he was already managing a small nature reserve in London, UK. As an undergraduate, Paul led a series of expeditions across Colombia, spending a total of over three years in the field that culminated in a new national park and four private protected areas. In 1992, Paul won the first BP Conservation Award. He has described four bird species new to science, including the Choco Vireo that he discovered at the age of 19 and helped rediscovery several other species. In 1998, Paul assisted the establishment of Fundacion ProAves that has become one of the most effective conservation NGOs in South America. After graduating with a D.Phil from the Univeristy of Oxford in 2001 he undertook a post-doc at The Natural History Museum, before coordinating biodiversity science for Conservation International across the Tropical Andes based in Quito and Bogota. In 2005, Paul joined American Bird Conservancy as the Director of International Programs and since 2008 has been working for the World Land Trust based near Washington DC.
  
  
  
• Roger McDonough
  Director of Communications
  
  Roger was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and cultivated a passion for environmental conservation wandering the backroads and wilderness of the American West. A practiced freelance print and radio journalist, he has lived in several regions where World Land Trust works. Roger recently interned with a biodiversity conservation project in the Bolivia Amazon Basin. He later carried out thesis research in this same region, examining the potential of ethno-ecotourism initiatives as a tool for sustainable development. In 2009 he completed a dual master’s degree in policy and development at Georgetown University, Washington DC, and the Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
  
  
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• Janis Golden
  Operations Manager
  
  Janis has spent over twenty years working in the non-profit sector, mainly in historic preservation - which has its own unique commitment to saving historic architecture, objects, and primary source information. Her experience with interpretation and programming has inspired a life-long commitment to conservation and education. Janis firmly believes that if we do not take measures to preserve habitats, species and history, they will be lost to haphazard development. Janis is married, has a young son, and has lived in Virginia for the past seven years. She is a dedicated and proud member of the World Land Trust-US team.
  
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• Bennett Hennessey
  Partner Development Coordinator
  
  

  Born in Quebec City, Bennett grew up in Toronto, Canada, where he completed a customized zoology/environmental science degree at the University of Toronto. He worked on conservation projects in the Republic of the Congo for a year, finishing the period with an enlightening two and a half months living with the Mbendjele rainforest pygmies. After years of ornithological field research in Bolivia, including the rediscovery of the Wattled Curassow and the Palkachupa Cotinga (after 98 years), Bennett became the executive director of the Bolivian bird conservation NGO Asociacion Armonía. Bennett has taken Armonía from a two conservation projects/three employees to 20 Bolivian and Peruvian bird conservation programs and 32 employees. Bennett, the first author of the Annotated List of the Birds of Bolivian (2003), most recently has been involved in developing private reserves in Bolivia, with long-term plans to support these efforts through a series of birdwatcher friendly ecolodges. Bennett speaks fluently English and Spanish with intermediate French and Portuguese. He lives on the outskirts of the tropical city of Santa Cruz in Bolivia with his wife Ruth, daughter Claudia, son Adam and ever hungry dog Frider.