Executive Director

For the past 22 years Whitney has worked to improve Minnesota’s environment as a staff member for several local environmental organizations including Citizens for a Better Environment and the Clean Water Action Alliance. During his ten-year tenure as executive director, Whitney has led FMR’s growth from a start-up group with one staff member to a leading conservation organization with a staff of fourteen. He has extensive experience in environmental policy, lobbying, advocacy and education campaigns, partnership building around environmental issues and grassroots fundraising. He is an alumnus of the University of Minnesota, where he studied history. He is married and lives in Saint Paul with his wife Sarah and their two daughters.

Member of FMR staff since: January 1997

FMR asset most proud of: “The professional, competent and committed staff that we have assembled over the years as well as the functional and engaged board of directors that continues to guide the organization with wisdom and finesse.”

Hobbies: Canoeing and wilderness exploration, travel, music, photography

Favorite literature: Walden, Patrick O’Brien’s Aubrey/Maturin series of novels, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the poetry of Gary Snyder and Walt Whitman

Favorite music: Rock and roll, jazz and classical music. Favorites include Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Brahms, the Beatles, the Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead.

Favorite location on the Mississippi: The Vermillion Bottoms, just downstream of Hastings

Favorite way to spend a day: A day in the wilderness with my family

Last big vacation: A wonderful month touring England, Scotland and Wales with my wife and two daughters in the summer of 2006. “A great family trip!” Highlights: Hiking the public footpaths of rural Wales, and the Lake District; sampling the local brews in London’s pubs.

Heroes: The poet Gary Snyder, for his perspectives on nature and humans’ relationship to the natural world; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who spoke the truth when it was difficult and dangerous to do so.

Something most people don’t know about him: Whitney was a child actor and voice talent, and appeared in numerous local TV and radio commercials in the 1970s. Read more…