Defenders of Wildlife’s Board of Directors is made up of professionals from all walks of life—academic, scientific, legal, financial and business—who share a common love for our nation's wildlife and natural heritage. Their combined experience and dedication play an extremely important role in charting the future of Defenders and the wildlife conservation movement.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
SUSAN S. ALEXANDER, Greenwich, Connecticut, is an accomplished global executive with over 30 years of experience as a senior corporate leader and chief human resources officer for Sotheby’s, a premier global auction house with over $1 billion in revenue. In this role, she was a trusted advisor and partner to four CEOs, supervised a department of 30 staff that oversaw the compensation and benefits programs for the 1,600-person international corporation, developed numerous large-scale expansion and restructuring efforts and served on the team that developed the first online marketplace for fine arts and luxury collectibles. Alexander has extensive strategic planning, crisis management and corporate governance experience. She serves on the boards of YMCA of Greater New York City and Greenwich Library. She has a B.A. from Indiana University and an M.B.A. from the University of Cincinnati.
MITRA AMESTOY, Rye Brook, New York, has over 20 years of leadership in corporate marketing and creative campaigns, developing insight-driven integrated marketing campaigns, award-winning original content and differentiated brand positioning for renowned global brands. She has been executive creative director for Lindblad Expeditions since 2021. Prior to Lindblad, Amestoy led Sotheby's award-winning global digital content strategy as senior vice president, head of content & creative services. Amestoy has a bachelor’s degree in English/Creative Writing from Ohio University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa.
WHITFIELD BAILEY, Knoxville, Tennessee, is an executive at VLS, Volunteer Lumber Sales, Inc., a company founded by his father that distributes fire-retardant shingles, crating lumber, cedar shakes and other wood products. He is on the boards of the Knoxville Opera, the Community School of the Arts, the Knox Youth Sport organization and the AHB Foundation. Bailey and his wife are passionate about protecting wildlife for their children and future generations to enjoy and believe in the intrinsic value of protecting species for species’ sake. They enjoy hiking and exploring the outdoors in their home state of Tennessee.
DONALD BARRY, Medford, Oregon, spent more than 40 years working on wildlife and public lands conservation issues as a senior government official and a leader in the conservation community. In 19 years at the Department of Interior, he served as a career staff attorney and chief counsel for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and as the assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, overseeing the policies and programs of the National Park Service and FWS. He then dedicated 17 years to nonprofit conservation organizations, holding executive leadership positions at the World Wildlife Fund, The Wilderness Society, Environmental Defense Fund and Defenders of Wildlife, where he was senior vice president for conservation programs until his retirement in 2016.
DINAH BEAR, Tucson, Arizona, is an attorney and consultant specializing in federal environmental law and Southwest border issues. She spent 25 years at the Council on Environmental Quality, including 23 as general counsel. She has chaired committees on environmental law for the American Bar Association and the District of Columbia Bar Association. She has been recognized with the Chairman’s Award from the Natural Resources Council of America, the Distinguished Service Award from the Sierra Club and the award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy from the American Bar Association. Bear was awarded the Spirit of Defenders Award for Public Service by Defenders of Wildlife’s board of directors in 2018 and previously served on its board from 2009 to 2018. She is on the board of Humane Borders and on the advisory committee of the Center for International Environmental Law. She received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and graduated from the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law.
KIM O’KEEFE BECK, Saratoga, California, is a scientist, philanthropist and mother of twins. She combines a deep background in wildlife science with a range of nonprofit experience in the United States and abroad. She conducted extensive field research on the influence of climate on mammalian populations in Yellowstone National Park and on speciation of birds in Africa. She has shared her love of the natural world with students of every age from elementary school through graduate school. An EPA Star Fellow, Beck holds a Ph.D. in ecology and evolution from Stanford University, an M.A. in biology (ecology and systematics) from San Francisco State University and a B.A. with honors and distinction in biology (ecology and evolution) from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
ANDREW BOWMAN, Washington, DC, rejoined Defenders of Wildlife as president and CEO in August 2024. For over 30 years, he has focused on advancing bedrock conservation laws and protecting places for wildlife to thrive. Prior to Defenders, Bowman led the Land Trust Alliance as the president and CEO for eight years, spearheading programs to help land trusts tackle today’s pressing issues and societal needs. He also served as the program director for the environment at the Doris Duke Charitable Trust for 11 years, overseeing all environmental grant-making for the foundation. Prior to his work at the foundation, Bowman practiced law in Oregon for Defenders and at the law firm Perkins Coie LLP. He earned a master's degree in city and regional planning from the University of California at Berkeley as well as a Juris Doctor from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He received a Master of Law degree in environmental and natural resources law from the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College.
MARK CAYLOR, Solvang, California, is president of the Mission Systems sector of Northrop Grumman, a major aerospace corporation. Along with his wife, Courtney Surls, and dog, Benni, Caylor enjoys hiking, bicycling and traveling. Caylor has long had a passion for nature and ecology, with particular interest in conserving open space and preserving habitat in the U.S. He was introduced to Defenders when he moved from California to Washington, D.C. in 2011 and became a member of Defenders of Wildlife’s National Council. He is also a member of The Nature Conservancy and was formerly treasurer of the Sierra Club’s Los Angeles Chapter. Caylor has an M.B.A. from University of California, Los Angeles and engineering degrees from California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
PAUL DONAHER, New York, New York, is a global leader with a distinguished track record of growing and transforming organizations with creativity and innovation at their core. Donaher has held senior executive positions at Apple, Beats by Dre and Sotheby’s and has advised esteemed brands as diverse as Four Seasons Hotels, Goldman Sachs, Gap and Harvard Business School. As senior managing director of MARCOM, Donaher led the business side of Apple’s global marketing communications group with 1,200 employees across 12 countries. Donaher served as president/partner at Laird+Partners, a global branding firm specializing in lifestyle brands with clients as diverse as Gap, Hilton Hotels and Target. Before joining L+P, Donaher was global head of strategy and marketing at Sotheby’s, Inc. He was also a partner at Margeotes Fertitta Donaher & Weiss, a New York-based firm specializing in premium brand marketing and recognized as a leading creative powerhouse. Donaher received his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.
JOHN A. DONOVAN, Essex, Montana, spent his career as a trial lawyer, handling major domestic and international cases. He was a partner in Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom until 2011, when he retired from Skadden and continued practice on his own on a reduced scale. He has served on several charitable boards including Glacier National Park Conservancy, where he served as board chair. He is also a proponent of Dark Sky programs and was proud to help Glacier National Park apply for international dark sky designation in 2017. Donovan has an abiding interest in supporting wilderness education, in the hope that we can raise the next generation of committed stewards for our special wild places. For 15 years, Donovan and his wife Dana have run a Wilderness Leadership Program for high school seniors out of their Montana home. He received his A.B. degree from Harvard and his J.D. from Fordham University.
ROBERT L. FISCHMAN, Bloomington, Indiana, is a distinguished scholar whose articles have won recognition as among the most influential in environmental law. He is a co-author of the leading casebook on public land and resources law. His book on management of the National Wildlife Refuge System has become the standard reference in the field. He writes about public land management, endangered species recovery, federalism, adaptive conservation, climate change and environmental impact analysis. At the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Fischman teaches environmental law, administrative law, public natural resources law, water law and wildlife law. He is a founding board member of the Conservation Law Center, Inc., which operates the law school's conservation law clinic. Prior to joining the IU Law School faculty in 1992, he taught at the University of Wyoming College of Law and served as staff attorney at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, D.C. Fischman has taught at Vermont Law School and the Lewis and Clark School of Law and also spent a year as a senior research scholar at Yale Law School. He received his A.B. degree from Princeton University and both his M.S. and J.D. degrees from the University of Michigan.
CAROLINE D. GABEL, Chestertown, Maryland, is a past chair of Defenders’ board of directors and currently chairs the board of the Snow Leopard Conservancy. She serves on numerous other boards, including The Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital. Gabel also serves on the Advisory Council of the Bhutan Foundation and remains a member of the Rachel’s Network Founders’ Circle. Gabel is president and CEO of The Shared Earth Foundation, which supports endangered species, habitat protection and biodiversity. She spent 30 years on the staffs of members of Congress from Minnesota and on the House Committee on Transportation. A licensed pilot and avid traveler, Gabel completed her undergraduate studies at Wellesley College and received an M.A. in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania.
ALISON GREGGOR, Escondido, California, serves San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance as a Researcher in recovery ecology. Greggor is broadly interested in connecting research on animal behavior and learning to conservation management, and in bringing evidence-based science to practices that utilize animal behavior. In her research, she focuses on the links between animal learning and temperament, and their effect on behavioral competency and post-reintroduction survival. Greggor earned her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and served as a postdoctoral research associate at Dartmouth College. She is a member of the Animal Behavior Society’s Conservation Committee and has advised the Convention of Migratory Species’ Scientific Council as an expert in animal culture. Greggor is a part of the 50 Voices: A Science Collective for Endangered Species, a collective of independent scientists who conduct and communicate research across the United States, including research on our nation’s biodiversity, population trends in the abundance and distribution of plant and animal species, and threats to declining and endangered species. She was the main author of 50 Voices’ May 2025 public comments on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to rescind the definition of "harm" under the Endangered Species Act.
LINDA HANAUER, New York, New York, is a seasoned financial and strategic executive with over twenty-five years of experience in C-suite roles – including CEO, CFO, COO and CAO – across private family investment offices, private equity firms and venture capital organizations. She has overseen and transformed core functions spanning finance, investment strategy, governance, operations and compliance, and structured innovative solutions to complex challenges. Her financial leadership includes key roles at Ridgeleigh Management Company, Paine Schwartz Partners and Venrock. Hanauer is a founding board member of the Private Equity CFO Association and previously served on the Board of CityStep, a youth empowerment organization. She has a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Adelphi University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
ANITA KEEFE, Greenwich, Connecticut, is the president of the Keefe Family Foundation, which supports local, national and international wildlife conservation and animal welfare organizations. She is also vice president of the Alpha/Omega Charitable Foundation, which focuses its funding on environmental, educational and religious institutions. She served on the board of trustees and council of the Wildlife Conservation Society. A long-time resident of Greenwich, Connecticut, Keefe is chairman of the board of the Greenwich Riding and Trails Association. She is passionate about wolves and bears and has supported Defenders’ coexistence work for the past seven years.
ANN J. MORGAN, Denver, Colorado, has been a leader in the nonprofit sector as well as in federal and state government and private industry for over 30 years. Her career focused on natural resource management and conservation, and she helped protect and conserve millions of acres across the West. Morgan has served as the senior vice president/western division manager of the Trust for Public Land, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Regional with National Wildlife Federation, vice president of public lands with The Wilderness Society, Bureau of Land Management state director in Colorado and Nevada, as well as division director in the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. She has served on numerous nonprofit boards and as an adjunct faculty teaching natural resources law at University of Colorado Law School and environmental policy at University of Denver University College and University of Colorado Masters of the Environment. Morgan holds a B.S. in political economy of natural resources from the University of California Berkeley and an M.B.A. from Golden Gate University.
JAIME A. PINKHAM, Ridgefield, Washington is former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works under the Biden administration. Prior to his appointment in 2021, he served as the executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission in Portland, Oregon since 2017, and currently serves as their senior advisor. Previously, he served as vice president of the Bush Foundation, a private foundation in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he led the Foundation’s Native nations program and worked with Tribes across North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota as they redesigned their governing systems. He is a citizen of the Nez Perce Tribe and was selected twice to the Tribal Council. Pinkham has served on the boards of numerous nonprofit organizations, including The Wilderness Society, American Rivers, Native Arts and Culture Foundation and the University of Arizona’s Udall Center’s Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management and Policy. He received forestry degrees from Oregon State University (OSU) and Peninsula College.
TERRY L. ROOT, Sarasota, Florida, is senior fellow emerita of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. She primarily researches how wild animals and plants are changing because of climate change, with a focus on the escalating concerns of a mass extinction of species due to warming. She actively works at making scientific information accessible to decision makers and the public. Root was a lead author for the Third (2001) and Fourth (2007) Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) and a review editor for the Fifth (2014) Assessment Report. In 2007, the IPCC was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Vice President Al Gore. In addition to other honors, Root was awarded the Spirit of Defenders Award for Science by Defenders of Wildlife’s board of directors in 2010 and served on its board from 2011 to 2013. Root is also a science advisor to Defenders of Wildlife, American Wind and Wildlife Institute, Alliance for Climate Education, Birds Caribbean, to name a few. Root holds a Ph.D. in biology from Princeton University, an M.A. in biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder and a B.S in mathematics and statistics from the University of New Mexico.
SHERYL SACHS, Greenwich, Connecticut, is vice president of The Grey Street Foundation and president of Blackfriars Aviation. She serves on the executive board of AJC Westchester/Fairfield region. A Chicago native, Sachs is a certified public accountant with a B.S. in chemistry and an M.S. in accountancy, both from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is an accomplished classical pianist, enjoys studying Latin and Hebrew and traveling (she has visited all 59 of the nation’s national parks) around the world. She and her husband were early investors in Defenders’ Center for Conservation Innovation and continue to generously support it.
PAUL SELVA, Gig Harbor, Washington, graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering. He holds Master of Science degrees from Abilene Christian University in Management and Human Relations and Auburn University in Political Science. Selva retired from the United States Air Force in July of 2019 after 39 years of service. He is an aviator whose operational assignments culminated with command of Air Mobility Command and subsequently United States Transportation Command. Immediately prior to his retirement, Selva served as the tenth Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is currently an advisor to the Sierra Nevada Corporation and Sierra Space, serves on the Board of Directors for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, Maersk Lines Limited, and is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Aerospace Corporation. He is a co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of DEFCON-AI, a defense-oriented company developing AI-driven advanced simulation software for Department of Defense users. Selva is an advisor to the Gail Halvorsen Foundation and serves on the Board of Directors for Victory Village, a charity established to build a residential facility to provide for the specific medical and long-term care needs of Wounded Warriors as they enter retirement.
THOMAS D. SISK, Bowen Island, BC, Canada, is an environmental scientist focusing on landscape conservation and complex natural resource management challenges. He works at the interface of science and public policy, while carrying out research in applied ecology. Sisk has held senior positions in government, nonprofit and academic sectors, focusing his work on western North America, from the Sonoran Desert to the Salish Sea. His professional experience includes the design of innovative land protection plans, moderation of highly contested natural resource management challenges, development of interdisciplinary educational programs and service on advisory and management boards for regional, national and international organizations. He earned a B.A. from Colorado College and Ph.D. from Stanford University and was the inaugural Olajos-Goslow Chair of Environmental Science and Policy at Northern Arizona University. In addition to other honors, Sisk was the recipient of the 2017 Spirit of Defenders Award for Science.
