Lissa Widoff is an experienced environmental professional with extensive philanthropic and policy experience. She served as Executive Director of the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation for 20 years, strengthening programs for environmental leadership for graduate students and organizations and most recently served as Interim Executive Director for Midcoast Conservancy, a regional land conservation organization in midcoast Maine. She currently consults as a philanthropic advisor to donors and foundations and is on the board of Waldo County Bounty, a food council and food security organization serving Waldo County, Maine ensuring that all people have access to fresh and locally-grown food. Ms. Widoff has managed philanthropic initiatives on environmental, arts and culture and community development. One initiative helped 6 New England and maritime Canadian community foundations increase their grantmaking on coastal and marine issues. She also led a Maine Community Foundation initiative promoting community arts and cultural development. Prior to this, she co-directed The Land for Maine’s Future Program, a public land acquisition program in Maine through which she oversaw the protection of over 50,000+ acres of wildland and recreation areas for public use and enjoyment and helped craft the first state purchases of conservation easements on forestland. Ms. Widoff is trained as an ecologist and has worked for the State of Maine, The Nature Conservancy, the University of Maine and as a consultant in that capacity and has served on the Boards of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, the Maine Chapter of the Nature Conservancy and other local organizations. She holds a B.S degree from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and an M.P.A from Harvard Kennedy School. She served on the Maine Board of Environmental Protection as an appointed member from 2008-2011.Specialties: conservation biology, philanthropy, higher education, fellowships and academic support, Philanthropic strategic advising and consulting