Pinchot Institute For Conservation Names John Donahue New Executive Director, Will Price To Transition To Senior Fellow

On January 19, the Pinchot Institute Institute for Conservation Board Chair Carol Collier announced the appointment of John Donahue as the new Executive Director and the transition of Will Price to a Senior Fellow position. 

Price served as President for more than six of the 22 years he has been with the organization.

In his new role, Price will return to hands-on engagement in work to stem the ongoing loss of natural forest ecosystems and associated global declines in biodiversity. 

At the Institute he will continue to contribute expertise and leadership to initiatives that ensure forestry and forest conservation in the U.S. align with this purpose while slowing global warming to the greatest extent possible.

"I am grateful to the many staff and partners I have had the privilege to work alongside over many years with the Institute, and for the honor of leading this great organization,” reflected Price. “I also appreciate the Board's support and efforts over recent months to ensure a smooth transition."

The Board is pleased by Price’s continued engagement and by the appointment of John Donahue as the new Executive Director. 

Donahue has been closely associated with the Institute for the past twenty years and has been a member of the Institute’s Board of Directors for the past two years.

“I couldn’t be more excited about this new role with the Pinchot Institute,” said Donahue. “There are so many exciting opportunities for collaboration with the Forest Service, other agencies, communities, and environmental groups, to address the monumental conservation challenges facing the world.”

60th Anniversary

In 2023 the Pinchot Institute celebrates 60 years of advancing conservation through collaborative and science-based innovation. We are proud to have shaped how forestlands are managed to assure the conservation of natural resources, and to sustain current and future generations. 

As climate change imperils our shared national progress, and irreplaceable forest ecosystems are being lost and degraded throughout the world at a horrifying rate, the Institute remains focused on sustainable solutions to our most urgent problems.

Transitions at the Institute follow a yearlong process that included dialogues with leaders, seeking their perspective on these and other urgent priorities for the Institute. The U.S. Forest Service is – and has always been – chief among these partners, and has helped throughout this process.

This year must represent a turning point globally in the conservation of forests, wildlife and water resources. This can only happen through coordinated actions deployed at an unprecedented scale, with everyone at the table. 

The Institute welcomes the perspective, interest, and collaboration of all who seek to join and support our fight for conservation in the years to come.

John Donahue

A National Park Service employee of thirty-eight years, John served as Superintendent of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (DEWA) from 1983 until retiring at the end of 2017, when he launched Three Rivers Environmental Consulting. 

He is based in Milford, Pennsylvania, and has long been known to staff at Grey Towers National Historic site. 

Mr. Donahue was involved with both the Forest Service and the Institute in conservation partnership work centered in the Upper Delaware River Basin region.

Mr. Donahue is passionate about conservation and serves on the boards of the New Jersey Highlands Coalition, the National Parks Conservation Association Northeast Region Advisory Council, the Greater Pike Community Foundation, and the Alliance for Delaware River National Park and Lenape Preserve. 

As a Park Superintendent of DEWA Mr. Donahue helped establish a $66 million fund for DEWA Susquehanna to Roseland Power line and more recently a $20 million fund for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy from the Mountain Valley Pipeline project.

Will Price

Will has been with the Pinchot Institute since 1999, working on public policy and market-based solutions that improve forest management to protect biodiversity, water resources, and the future of communities that rely on healthy and intact natural forest ecosystems.

 His studies on forest certification included projects with U.S. state and federal agencies, forest product companies, universities, Native American tribes, and Alaska Native corporations. 

He also helped develop pioneering approaches to crediting landowners for preserving rare habitat in the Chesapeake Watershed, and investing through landowners in source water protection within the Delaware River basin. 

In recent years his work with agencies and landowners focused on ways to sequester carbon through forest conservation. 

Prior to the Pinchot Institute he consulted with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation; and worked as a research technician with NASA, and with the Forest Service PNW Research Station in Corvallis, OR. 

Will graduated from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies with a Master of Forest Science degree, and holds a Bachelor's of Science from University of Notre Dame.

Visit the  Pinchot Institute for Conservation website for information on its conservation research and policy programs.  Click Here to sign up for the Institute’s regular updates.

The Pinchot Institute is named for former Pennsylvania Gov. Gifford Pinchot who was also the first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service and often called the “Father of American Conservation.”  It has offices at the Grey Towers National Historic Site in Pike County, Gov. Pinchot’s home, and in Washington, D.C. 

(Photos: John Donahue and Will Price, courtesy of Pinchot Institute.)

[Posted: January 19, 2023]  PA Environment Digest