Staff Profile: Buddy Huffaker

As the executive director I’m involved in many aspects of the foundation’s work that might range from giving a talk, to fundraising, to reviewing financial statements, sometimes all in the same day. Having joined the organization as an intern over fifteen years ago, I can pretty honestly say that I’ve done about everything around here. At one point I was pretty decent field botanist, could run a chainsaw, and even line boss a prescribed burn. My academic background is in landscape architecture and plant ecology but more recently my professional development has focused on management and finance. While my responsibilities have taken me away from the field, it has been very rewarding to see our programming and reach expand so that we are now really helping to advance a conservation ethic across the country and even beyond. One of the most thrilling parts of my job is to be able to interact with individuals and communities all over the country that are working not only to fully understand Leopold’s vision of a land ethic, but more importantly, implement in their day to day lives.