Meet The Judges

Receive feedback from experts.

Evaluation Panel Members

The Evaluation Panel members have been carefully chosen for their knowledge and experience. Each member scores and comments on the applications assigned to them. While our judges are well-connected experts in the field, applications are reviewed only by judges who have no ties to the applicants or proposed project to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. Each valid application will receive five sets of reviews that have been statistically normalized. Informed by the resulting rank order of applications, the finalists will be named. Initial Evaluation Panel members include:


​Taishya Adams

Commissioner, Colorado Park & Wildlife Commission

Katie Allen

Director, Conservation Leadership Network, The Conservation Fund

Rosario Alvarez

Executive Director, MigraMar

Bob Bendick

Director, The Nature Conservancy’s Gulf of Mexico Program

Anne Castle

Senior Fellow, Getches-Wilkinson Center, CU Law School

Susan Daggett

Executive Director, Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute

Michael Dowling

Former Board Chair, Land Trust Alliance

Liba Pejchar Goldstein

Associate Professor, Colorado State University

Tom Gougeon

President, Gates Family Foundation

Allegra “Happy” Haynes

Executive Director, Denver Parks and Recreation

Osvel Hinojosa-Huerta

Director, Coastal Solutions Fellows Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Richard Knight

Professor of Wildlife Conservation, Colorado State University

Jessica Levine

Conserving Land & Water Strategy Lead, The Nature Conservancy

Jim Levitt

Program Director, Land and Water Conservation, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Deb Love

Director, Intermountain West Division at Resources Legacy Fund

Meghan MacDougall

Program Director, Conservation, The W. Garfield Weston Foundation

Jennifer Melville

Vice President Conservation Grants, Open Space Institute

Heath Nero

Conservation Program Officer, Wyss Foundation

​Maria Jose Villanueva Noriega

Biologist, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

Jill Ozarski

Program Officer, Colorado River Initiative, Walton Family Foundation

Patrick L. Phillips

Fmr. Global CEO, Urban Land Institute

Martha Records

Managing Partner, Green Spark Ventures

Sarah Reed

Executive Director, Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation

Rosa Maria Vidal Rodriguez

Senior Advisor, Center for Protected Area Management, Colorado State University

John Sanderson

Executive Director, Center for Collaborative Conservation

Sharon Schneider

Executive Director, Telluray Foundation

Sacha Spector

Program Director, Environment, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Dan Stiles

Executive Director, Stiles Legal

Gary Tabor

Founder & President, Center for Large Landscape Conservation (The Center)

Kate Trujillo

Director of Programs, Honnold Foundation

Marty Zeller

President, Conservation Partners

Selection Committee Members

Finalists will participate in a pitch event in September 2020. The Selection Committee will be present for the finalists’ pitches and will designate the winner of the $100,000 award. Determination of the winner rests solely with the Selection Committee and the CSU Salazar Center for North American Conservation.

Sharon Farrell

Executive Vice President, Projects, Stewardship & Science, Golden Gate National Parks Conservatory

Chandni Navalkha

Program Manager, Land Conservation Programs, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Dr. Francisco Zamora

Senior Director, Water and Ecosystem Restoration, Sonoran Institute

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