Meet The Judges
Receive feedback from experts.
Evaluation Panel Members
The Evaluation Panel members have been carefully chosen for their knowledge and experience. Each member scores and comments on the applications assigned to them. While our judges are well-connected experts in the field, applications are reviewed only by judges who have no ties to the applicants or proposed project to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. Each valid application will receive five sets of reviews that have been statistically normalized. Informed by the resulting rank order of applications, the finalists will be named. Initial Evaluation Panel members include:
Taishya Adams
Commissioner, Colorado Park & Wildlife Commission
Katie Allen
Director, Conservation Leadership Network, The Conservation Fund
Rosario Alvarez
Executive Director, MigraMar
Bob Bendick
Director, The Nature Conservancy’s Gulf of Mexico Program
Anne Castle
Senior Fellow, Getches-Wilkinson Center, CU Law School
Susan Daggett
Executive Director, Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute
Michael Dowling
Former Board Chair, Land Trust Alliance
Liba Pejchar Goldstein
Associate Professor, Colorado State University
Tom Gougeon
President, Gates Family Foundation
Allegra “Happy” Haynes
Executive Director, Denver Parks and Recreation
Osvel Hinojosa-Huerta
Director, Coastal Solutions Fellows Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Richard Knight
Professor of Wildlife Conservation, Colorado State University
Jessica Levine
Conserving Land & Water Strategy Lead, The Nature Conservancy
Jim Levitt
Program Director, Land and Water Conservation, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Deb Love
Director, Intermountain West Division at Resources Legacy Fund
Meghan MacDougall
Program Director, Conservation, The W. Garfield Weston Foundation
Jennifer Melville
Vice President Conservation Grants, Open Space Institute
Heath Nero
Conservation Program Officer, Wyss Foundation
Maria Jose Villanueva Noriega
Biologist, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
Jill Ozarski
Program Officer, Colorado River Initiative, Walton Family Foundation
Patrick L. Phillips
Fmr. Global CEO, Urban Land Institute
Martha Records
Managing Partner, Green Spark Ventures
Sarah Reed
Executive Director, Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation
Rosa Maria Vidal Rodriguez
Senior Advisor, Center for Protected Area Management, Colorado State University
John Sanderson
Executive Director, Center for Collaborative Conservation
Sharon Schneider
Executive Director, Telluray Foundation
Sacha Spector
Program Director, Environment, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Dan Stiles
Executive Director, Stiles Legal
Gary Tabor
Founder & President, Center for Large Landscape Conservation (The Center)
Kate Trujillo
Director of Programs, Honnold Foundation
Marty Zeller
President, Conservation Partners
Selection Committee Members
Finalists will participate in a pitch event in September 2020. The Selection Committee will be present for the finalists’ pitches and will designate the winner of the $100,000 award. Determination of the winner rests solely with the Selection Committee and the CSU Salazar Center for North American Conservation.
Sharon Farrell
Executive Vice President, Projects, Stewardship & Science, Golden Gate National Parks Conservatory
Chandni Navalkha
Program Manager, Land Conservation Programs, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Dr. Francisco Zamora
Senior Director, Water and Ecosystem Restoration, Sonoran Institute