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LATEST NEWS
- Congress Debates Reopening National Parks Across the Country
October 2, 2013
- Press Telephone Briefing Today RE: Shutdown of National Parks Nationwide
October 1, 2013
- Government Shutdown Closes National Parks Nationwide
October 1, 2013
Center for Park Research: Meet the Staff
Dr. James Nations, Washington, D. C.
Trained as an ecological anthropologist, Dr. James D. Nations has spent the past 25 years working for the protection of natural ecosystems and cultural heritage in the tropics and the United States. He lived three years with the Lacandón Maya, a rainforest tribe in Chiapas, Mexico, studied alternatives to deforestation in Central America for two years as a post-doctoral fellow, and lived three years in Guatemala as a Senior Fulbright Research Scholar and technical advisor to Guatemala’s National Council for Protected Areas. He also worked with Ecuador’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife to incorporate indigenous groups into the planning and management of national parks in the Ecuadorian Amazon. He is the author of Tropical Rainforests (Franklin Watts/Grolier 1988), Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Tropical Rainforest (Conservation International 2000), and The Maya Tropical Forest: People, Parks, and Ancient Cities (University of Texas Press 2006), as well as a dozen book chapters on protected areas, biodiversity, and indigenous people. Before becoming the National Parks Conservation Association’s Vice President for the Center in 2003, Nations worked 13 years with Conservation International, serving as Vice President for Latin America and Vice President for Development Agency Relations. He earned BS and MS degrees from the University of North Texas, and MA and Ph.D. degrees in anthropology from Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, Texas. He also serves as Clerk of Trustees for the Alexandria Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Vice President of the Leadership Council for Human Rights, and President of the Board of Directors of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems.
Ron Tipton, Washington, D. C.
Ron Tipton has spent most of the past 30 years as an advocate for public land preservation and national park protection. A graduate of George Washington University with an undergraduate degree in American Studies and a law degree from George Washington University’s National Law Center, Ron has worked as a program officer at the National Academy of Sciences and on the oversight/investigative staff of the House Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Subcommittee. Since 1978 he has been a part of the advocacy and/or management team of four non-profit national conservation organizations: The Wilderness Society, National Audubon Society, World Wildlife Fund, and National Parks Conservation Association. Ron has been the Senior Vice President for Programs for NPCA since 2000. Ron is an avid hiker and slow but steady runner. In 1978 he walked the entire length of the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail.
