Doris Duke’s Andrew Bowman to Lead The Land Trust Alliance

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Land Trust Alliance, a national land conservation organization working to save the places people love by strengthening land conservation across America, today announced that Andrew Bowman will assume the role of president starting Feb. 10, 2016.

 

“The Alliance’s board of directors is thrilled that Mr. Bowman has agreed to take on this critical role,” said Laura Johnson, Alliance board chair. “He embodies the drive, innovation and collaborative spirit that will lead the Land Trust Alliance and the land trust community to dramatically increase the impact of conservation in America.”

 

Bowman currently serves as the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s (DDCF) program director for the environment. During his 10 years at DDCF, he developed and obtained approval for more than $100 million in grants. Born and raised in California, Bowman earned a master’s degree in city and regional planning at the University of California at Berkeley, a Master of Laws in environmental and natural resources at the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College and a Juris Doctor degree at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law .

 

“The Alliance is an incredible organization that, over the last decade, has put in place critical programs and created key entities to serve the land trust community and ensure that land conservation is conducted with rigor, professionalism and integrity,” Bowman said. “It taps into the expertise and creativity of the staff, board members and supporters of its more than 1,100 member land trusts to advance land conservation in the U.S.”

 

Bowman said he’s particularly optimistic about the many opportunities to build a stronger conservation field in America. At DDCF, he conceived and launched major initiatives that diversified the conservation workforce by engaging young people from underrepresented, urban communities; reconciled the needs of wildlife with increased renewable energy development on public and private lands; and built a sustainable agriculture system in the greater New York City area that benefits people and wildlife.

 

“Private land conservation represents one of the few areas of strong bipartisan support for environmental protection,” Bowman said. “People of different backgrounds and political persuasions regularly join together to protect the places they all love. I’m truly excited to be part of such a positive, proactive movement.”

 

Among those to praise Bowman’s selection as the Alliance’s new president was his former instructor and longtime land conservation advocate, Bill Hutton.

 

“The Alliance’s choice of Andrew Bowman brings to the land trust community an experienced conservationist whose first steps on the path to the Alliance presidency may have been taken twenty-plus years ago in my land trusts seminar at Hastings,” said Bill Hutton, emeritus professor at Hastings College of the Law. “His passion for land conservation was evident even then, and he served as one of a small cadre of student editors who helped to launch The Back Forty—the Newsletter of Land Conservation Law. We should be most grateful for the wisdom of the Alliance’s search committee.”

 

“Andrew Bowman is a fantastic choice for the Land Trust Alliance,” said Mark Burget, North America managing director for The Nature Conservancy. “I have known and greatly admired Andrew for many, many years. He has devoted much of his life to the future of our lands and waters, a great service to nature and people across the country and indeed far beyond. And he has done so with his wonderful blend of intense intellect and graceful kindness. As our conservation community looks to an even brighter future, Andrew Bowman is the perfect person to take the reins at the Alliance.”

 

“Mr. Bowman has acted as a catalyst for groundbreaking conservation initiatives,” said Michael Dowling, chair of the search committee for the Alliance’s board of directors. “In his role at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, he provided critical grants to major Alliance initiatives such as accreditation, Terrafirma, and our national land trust excellence program. Andrew has deep knowledge of private land conservation and models the best ‘servant leader’ tradition of the Alliance.”