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Recognizing those who have worked tirelessly to understand, preserve, and protect the Sonoran desert borderlands.
This project was undertaken by Wendy (Gwynn) Laird Benner and Dr. Helen Ingram around 2010, supported by the International Sonoran Desert Alliance and funded by the Southwestern Foundation for Education and Historical Preservation. N-Gen is hosting the project interviews due to their importance and the insights they provide on the cross-border nature of the Sonoran Desert and its conservation.
Research associate with the University of Arizona’s Southwest Center, conservationist, and author.
Researcher at the Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México with focus on plant–animal interactions, biogeography, and the ecology of dryland plants.
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Executive Director for the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection.
Senior Conservation Specialist for the Mexico Program and biologist.
Biologist Science Technician with Organ Pipe National Monument (retired) who specialized in reptiles and rodents.
Artist and grasslands conservationist.
Conservation biologist with focus on Colorado River Delta, and Director, Coastal Solutions Fellows Program for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
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Former Refuge Manager at Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Former Coordinator of Sonoran Joint Venture.
Cultural Ecologist with the Watershed Management Group. Former Director, Mexico Programs, Sonoran Institute.
Agricultural ecologist, Ethnobotanist, Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, and author whose work has focused primarily on the plants and cultures of the desert Southwest.
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Proprietor at Cultural Exchange Service. Former board member of the Sonoran Institute and co-founder, International Sonoran Desert Alliance.
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(March 14, 1939-September 28, 2021) Worked for two western state fish and game departments (Nevada and California) and four United States government departments including as the Department of State (Foreign Service -Fisheries Attaché).
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Leads the United States–Mexico collaboration to restore the long-desiccated Colorado River Delta. She serves as the U.S. co-chair of the bi-national work group.
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Founder and Executive Director (retired) of the Sonoran Institute focused on conservation and community in the West.
Founder and Executive Director (retired) of Friends of the Santa Cruz River and the Tubac Nature Center.
Founder/Executive Director Emeritus, CEDO Intercultural.
Dr. Anderson (retired) served in the Nature Conservancy’s Mexico, Africa and Latin America divisions. Paulson is the Southwest borderlands program lead for the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Superintendent (retired), Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, U.S. National Park Service.
Tribal elder and leader. Hia-Ced O’odham member and San Lucy District Alternate of the Tohono O’odham Legislative Council. Founding board member of the International Sonoran Desert Alliance.
Plant ecologist and conservationist. studying the ecosystems of northwestern Mexico. A Fellow of the Ecological Society of America and Corresponding Fellow of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, Ezcurra has published more than 300 papers and books, has developed two Museum exhibits and an award-winning film on the Sea of Cortés. He was honored with a Conservation Biology Award and a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation; he was Scientific Chair of the CITES Convention, President of Mexico’s National Institute of Ecology, and 11-year Director of the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UC MEXUS). Currently, he is Professor of Ecology at the University of California, Riverside.
Show MoreRichard Stephen Felger (1934-2020) was a researcher with the Herbarium, School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona. He published widely on arid-land botany, ethnobotany, and conservation, and he was a coauthor of Plant Life of a Desert Archipelago: Flora of the Sonoran Islands in the Gulf of California.
Professor of Geosciences, University of Arizona and Chief Scientist for the Minute 323 Monitoring and Science Team for the Colorado River Delta.
Hadley is founding board member of the Northern Jaguar Project and retired Associate Curator of Ethnohistory and Director of the Arizona State Museum’s Office of Ethnohistorica Research. Warshall (1940–2013) was an ecologist, activist and essayist whose work centered on conservation and conservation-based development. Warshall was the Sustainability and Anthropology Editor of one of the later editions of the Whole Earth Catalog series, and served as an editor of its spin-off magazine, Whole Earth Review.
Show MoreGayle has spent the last 35 years working in a variety of archaeological capacities throughout southern Arizona, including serving as editor of Kiva: The Journal of Southwestern Anthropology and History. She is currently a research associate at the University of Arizona’s Arizona State Museum. Bill is a noted planetary scientist, painter, and author. He and Gayle co-wrote the beautifully illustrated book, “Desert Heart: Chronicles of the Sonoran Desert”.
Show More(December 1, 1936-September 18, 2019) Elder and tribal leader. Joaquin was Cultural Resource Affairs Specialist for the Tohono O’odham Nation.
Department of the Interior’s Special Assistant for International Programs (retired).
Adrianne Rankin
Professor Emeritus of Wildlife and Fisheries Science at The University of Arizona School of Natural Resources and the Environment.
Research Anthropologist at the Southwest Center and Professor of Anthropology in the University of Arizona School of Anthropology.
Superintendent (retired), Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
Executive Director (retired) of the International Sonoran Desert Alliance (ISDA).
Research professor of environmental policy and immediate past director of the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, University of Arizona.
Director, Southwest Center and editor, Journal of the Southwest, University of Arizona.
Author and research social scientist at the Southwest Center, University of Arizona.
Senior Director of Programs, Sonoran Institute.
An interpretive tapestry created by artist Ann Keuper who wove in items—using sausage casing—brought by attendees of the International Sonoran Desert Alliance’s Celebration of Desert Cultures.
