Jamie Williams is WWF's Senior Vice President of Durable Conservation and Finance. He leads WWF's Earth for Life team, which is focused on helping countries secure and sustainably finance protected and conserved areas for the benefit of nature and people. The Earth for Life team supports WWF's area-based conservation work and the Enduring Earth collaboration.
Jamie comes to WWF as a national conservation leader in the United States with over 30 years of experience in helping communities and Indigenous Nations protect large landscapes and cultural areas through private and public partnerships.
Most recently, Jamie served as President of The Wilderness Society for 12 years, where he focused on building diverse partnerships to conserve America's public lands for the health of wildlife, climate, and communities. Before that, Jamie held various leadership positions at The Nature Conservancy, where he served as its national director for Large Landscape Conservation (2008-2012), its Montana State Director (1998-2008), and its Yampa River Director in NW Colorado (1992-1998).
Jamie's leadership has focused on getting conservation to scale by supporting community-led and Indigenous-led conservation efforts as well as securing significant private and public finance for long term success. Jamie helped found the America the Beautiful for All Coalition, the largest and most diverse national conservation coalition in the US led by frontline groups. The goal of the coalition is to advance bold progress on the 30x30 conservation goal in inclusive and equitable ways. He has also helped support Indigenous Nations and communities develop new models for conserving their homelands with Indigenous leadership, knowledge, co-stewardship agreements, and ownership.
Jamie is passionate about the outdoors and worked as a river guide and outdoor educator (NOLS instructor) in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. He holds a Masters in environmental studies from the Yale School of the Environment and a BA from Yale University.
Jamie and his family enjoy hiking, river trips, birding, and getting to know other cultures.
