People Type: Board of Trustees

Pete is the Dean of Earth Commons Institute for the Environment and Sustainability and Laudato Si’ Professor of Biology and the Environment, Georgetown University. He is a senior scientist emeritus and the former director of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. His research in avian conservation science has three broad themes, including the ecology of migratory birds, urban ecosystem ecology, and disease ecology.

Marra’s primary interests lie in understanding the factors that control population persistence and dynamics, so his research examines the roles of climate, habitat, food, and pathogens, as well as other anthropogenic sources of mortality on the individual condition of both migratory and resident birds.

Marra’s research emphasizes incorporating events throughout the annual cycle to understand how more complex interactions across seasons drive the ecology and evolution of species, and he uses this information to find conservation solutions. To do this, he has developed and incorporated multiple novel and emerging tracking techniques into his research.

Marra has founded several large research and communication initiatives, including Neighborhood Nestwatch, The Migratory Connectivity Project, and the Animal Mortality and Monitoring Program. Communicating his science and his excitement for the conservation of wildlife to as wide an audience as possible, including the general public, is a high priority of his overall program.

Marra earned a B.S. from Southern Connecticut State University, a master’s from Louisiana State University and a PhD from Dartmouth College.

Paul Dobbins is the Vice President, Low Trophic Aquaculture, and the Senior Director, Impact Investments, at World Wildlife Fund (WWF-US.) He joined WWF to lead the global project, “Advancing Seaweed and Shellfish Aquaculture for Climate Change.” Paul provides thought leadership and financial expertise on how seaweed and shellfish aquaculture can be scaled for increased biomass production and excess nutrient remediation. A former shellfish and seaweed farmer, Paul led the development of the United States’ first open-ocean commercial kelp farms.

Prior to returning to the ocean, he was a Managing Director at IDEXX Laboratories, a publicly traded provider of products and services for animal health. Earlier in his career, Paul participated in the funding, growth, and sale of several consumer products and business-to-business companies.

Paul served on the advisory boards of NOAA’s Maine SeaGrant, the Aquaculture Research Institute at the University of Maine, the Maine Aquaculture Association, The Maine Technology Institute, Focus Maine, and the Conservation Law Foundation. He currently serves as a US Delegate to the ICES working group on offshore aquaculture and as an advisor to federally funded aquaculture research projects in North America and Europe. He earned a B.A. in Administrative Science from Colby College and an MBA from the University of Minnesota.

Molly Bartlett is a lawyer with extensive executive experience in community based international conservation. From 2015 through 2023, she was the Executive Director of the International Conservation Fund of Canada (ICFC) reporting to its Board of Directors, with overall responsibility for managing a distributed leadership team, overall strategy, communications, land acquisitions, and program design. In this role she helped deliver biodiversity conservation in terrestrial and marine ecosystems through over 40 local organizations in 28 countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. She led a reorganization of ICFC, including the establishment of a US affiliate, and a subsequent expansion resulting in overall donor revenue growth of 300%.

She previously was a senior executive within the Clinton Foundation’s Climate Initiative (CCI) as Director of its Forestry Program, which had projects in Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Vietnam, and Indonesia. In this role she led collaborative programs with national governments and rural communities to develop large scale avoided deforestation, reforestation and landscape restoration projects for climate resilience and biodiversity conservation. Her team also established Moja Global, a non-profit entity to house and maintain free open-source software tools to enable developing countries to affordably measure and manage their emissions from the land sector.

Prior to her international work, she served on the Town of Duxbury’s Conservation Commission which included oversight of the Duxbury Beach Management Plan. She served pro bono as Pilgrim Watch’s attorney during its 2006 challenge to the relicensing of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth.

She now serves as the President of the U.S. based International Conservation Fund. Bartlett has a master’s degree in molecular biology and a degree in environmental law. She divides her time between homes in Boston, and Gurnet Point in Plymouth.

Rosa Maria Vidal has been a champion of local governance in conservation for her career. Currently, she is a Senior Program Manager at Livelihoods Venture, an international private social impact fund, and a Senior Advisor of the Center for Protected Area Management at Colorado State University, where she supports the development of conservation and women leadership training programs implemented globally. She was the founder and Director for Pronatura Sur from 1993 to 2015, where she led the growth of the organization and was the Director of the Governors’ Climate and Forests Fund from 2013-2016, working with 35 subnational jurisdictions in 8 countries, promoting REDD+ policies implementation at a global scale. She has been a consultant for international organizations, including the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility.

In her early career years, she contributed to understanding the migration patterns of landbirds in Central America. She has kept her interest in bird migration and conservation as a personal passion. She has served in international avian councils and working groups, including the WHSRN Council, the Partners in Flight Science Committee, Birdlife Regional Americas Council, and regional networks and initiatives related to gender, environment, and climate change issues.

She holds a biology degree from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, a certificate in Wildlife Management from Arizona State University, a Gender and Sustainability Diploma from Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, and a Women in Leadership certificate from Cornell University.

Martha was the Chief Operating Officer at the World Wildlife Fund and now works part-time on selected projects with the Chief Conservation Officer. Prior to joining WWF, she worked for nine years at Rare, an international conservation organization that empowers community members to participate in local decision-making and natural resource management. At Rare, she was the SVP of strategy and growth, and then Managing Director for Global Solutions. Before joining the conservation world, she spent nearly 20 years at companies including Ernst & Young and the Corporate Executive Board, where she was Managing Director.

Martha currently is on the Board of Advisors at the Center for Leadership at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Martha holds a BA from Miami University, and an MBA from University of Virginia Darden School of Business.