MENLO PARK, Calif. – Michael Scott, the executive director of one of the West’s leading environmental organizations, will join the Environment Program of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation as a program officer, the Program’s director, Tom Steinbach, announced today.
Scott is the executive director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition in Bozeman, Montana, a nonprofit organization that works to preserve an intact ecosystem for the Greater Yellowstone region, which embraces two national parks and portions of seven national forests.
“I couldn’t be more pleased to have Michael join us,” Steinbach said. “He knows the terrain in every sense, thinks strategically and will be a wonderful partner in our work.”
In his work at Hewlett, Scott will focus on land and water conservation issues in the western United States and Canada. He has a master’s degree in public policy from Claremont Graduate School and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“I’m delighted to be joining Hewlett’s environmental team,” Scott said. “Protecting the great natural lands of the American West has become my life’s work, and the Hewlett Foundation is well known for its effective and thoughtful philanthropy in the field of conservation.”
During his twelve-year tenure with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Scott is credited with negotiating a crucial land swap that saved a significant area of Greater Yellowstone from development and with expanding the Coalition’s reach with field offices in Jackson and Cody, Wyoming, and in Idaho Falls, Idaho, among many other accomplishments.
He was program director at the Greater Yellowstone Coalition for four years before being promoted to lead the organization in 2000. Earlier in his career, he worked at The Wilderness Society, the League of California Cities and in Congress for former U.S. Representative Jerry M. Patterson of Southern California, the region where Scott grew up.
The Hewlett Foundation’s Environment Program makes grants to save the great ecosystems of the North American West, address global climate change and reduce the impact of fossil fuels by promoting energy efficiency and renewable sources of energy.
About The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has been making grants since 1967 to help solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. The Foundation concentrates its resources on activities in education, the environment, global development, performing arts, philanthropy and population, and makes grants to support disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. A full list of all the Hewlett Foundation’s grants can be found here.