Mike Skuja Email & Phone Number

Philadelphia, Pa, Us

Media, Pennsylvania, United States

•Provide strategic direction and leadership to promote the arboretum as a site for respite, recreation, education, community and advocacy for the natural environment in the Philadelphia metro region• Develop and lead new partnerships and programming grounded in Tyler’s strategic plan and values of inclusivity and collaboration • Manage the oversight of all staff and fiscal matters as well as relationships to the Board of Trustees and associated committees

• Oversaw implementation of coastal habitat conservation initiatives in the New England and mid-Atlantic states for the Conserving Marine Life in the US program and developed new cross-cutting initiatives • Supervised, led and developed Pew staff and consultants working throughout the region.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

• Strengthened community-based conservation strategies, research partnerships and wildlife conservation job and training opportunities in select National Parks of Equatorial Guinea for the 'Guinea Ecuatorial-Naturaleza, Turismo y Educación' (GENTE) program, a temporary consortium created to foster international collaboration and scientific training opportunities.

• Bonobo Conservation Initiative: served as the Interim Director and managed staff across the Democratic Republic of Congo and US, produced organizational sustainability plan, revised job descriptions and reporting structure • California-Water Impact Network: identified opportunities to scale up their watershed work throughout the state of California and marketed innovative approaches to large donors like Patagonia through grants• D&R Greenway: designed a new multicultural watershed conservation initiative to be responsive to environmental justice challenges of the region by partnering with social justice organizations• Eco-Ventures International: served as the natural resource expert for the USAID-funded project Eastern Caribbean Youth Microenterprise Program to accelerate the creation of sustainable livelihoods opportunities in Dominica• Humane Society International: served as Project Director for a State Department funded project across five Central American countries to lead illegal wildlife trade prevention training workshops and built El Salvador's first wildlife rescue center• Penn State Extension: led the program design update for the Philadelphia Master Watershed Steward program to include greater depth on environmental justice issues• Volcanoes Safaris Partnership Trust: produced a strategic plan detailing job opportunities for community ecotourism and sustainable livelihoods in Rwanda and Uganda.

Berkeley, Ca

Curriculum design and course instruction for ESPM 160AC, which focused on the role of environmental justice throughout the history of the United States. The course highlighted how movements for clean water, air, and livelihoods near protected areas forge a stronger multicultural environmental movement.

Portland, Oregon Area

• Led fundraising efforts which doubled the organizational budget and garnered the largest grants, corporate and private donations in the organization’s history.• Ensured watershed advocacy work was responsive to needs of immigrant and refugee communities by building coalitions with culturally-specific organizations to lead environmental jobs training • Spearheaded the institution’s first climate change adaptation efforts by working with ranchers and government agencies to restore habitat in degraded riparian zones via a WCS’ Climate Adaptation Fund, the largest grant in the organization’s history. • Oversaw environmental education efforts that served 5,000 students (80% Title 1 schools)• Led outreach to expand awareness of TRK and water quality issues in the region, creating the first Spanish and Arabic wateshed murals in the country • Cultivated greater diversity in Board skill sets and representation, bringing on 7 new Board of Directors, including leaders from the social justice community and the first farmer in the organization’s history.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Professor of self-designed ‘Rural Development, Human Rights, and Biodiversity’ master's level course focused on conflicts and opportunities with community conservation, Indigenous rights and the political ecology of the conservation movement globally.

Washington, District Of Columbia, United States

•Founded a 501c3 leadership incubator to support scientists from the Global South to start their own organizations rooted in rights-based approaches to conservation. This resulted in the formation of 4 community conservation organizations with grants from the MacArthur Foundation, Disney Conservation Fund and others. Country level impact:• Kenya: 7,000+ ha of wetlands under local management governed by 4 newly formed village environmental committees, environmental education for 34,000 people, 1,000+ households with green technology (biogas, compost/ecosan and solar)• Cameroon: completed community attitudinal assessments of snail farming and implemented snail farming as an alternative to illegal wildlife harvest for women entrepreneurs outside of Mount Cameroon National Park. • Philippines: completed biological surveys of humpback whales and instituted community marine protected area establishment and zonation, published internationally recognized human-whale interaction guidelines • Sri Lanka: instituted sustainable livelihoods for 50 families via aloe vera cultivation and coral reef conservation education

Sacramento, California Area

• Staff wildlife biologist in Defender’s California office with responsibility for threatened and endangered species conservation and communications strategies throughout the state with a focus on the Sierra Nevada and southern California deserts• Led scientific strategy and review of management actions of U.S. federal and state agencies, preparing written comments and analytical documents for submission to FWS, BLM, CDFG, the military and Tribal Nations.

• Scientific analyses for UNEP’s Ecosystem, Assessment, and Policy Programme• Co-author on 'Mangroves of Western and Central Africa' report and ‘Global Marine Assessments’ • Completed 10 year review of the International Coral Reef Initiative, leading engagement of new members Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Cuba.

Greater Chicago Area

• Served as an ecology teacher in Pilsen, Chicago responsible for designing and leading a bilingual summer science program for Latino youth on pollution prevention, water quality andd organic farming in collaboration with Gads Hill Center.

Panama

•Worked in villages adjacent to a National Park on community-based environmental education, buffer zone reforestation techniques, medicinal value of plants, eco-tourism, and watershed management.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Support for National Geographics environmental education efforts around National Parks, including curriculum design for geography teachers.

Msc, Biodiversity, Conservation, And Management

MSc thesis on coastal reconstruction post-tsunami in Sri Lanka and the effect on fishing livelihoods

B.A, Geography And Zoology

Thesis on human-lion conflict in villages outside of Tarangire National Park, Tanzania