Board of Directors

Eugene and Clare Thaw

President of the Board for the Wind River Ranch Foundation and president of the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust.  Through their leadership, vision, and support, the Thaws have fosterd a conservation legacy for Wind River Ranch Foundation and the people of Mora County.

 

 

Maurice Hornocker                                             

 Maurice Hornocker is a wildlife biologist best known for his research on big cats. In his 40-year career, he and his colleagues have conducted pioneering research on numerous species of big cats and other carnivores worldwide. Throughout his career, he has photographed his research subjects and has utilized photographs as educational tools in the cause of conservation. In 1985 he founded the Hornocker Wildlife Institute, a nonprofit research and education foundation. The Institute, in 2000, merged with the Wildlife Conservation Society where Hornocker served as Senior Conservationist. In 2006 he founded the nonprofit Selway Institute where he currently serves as President/Director.   Maurice has published more than 100 scientific articles, and he has made several documentary films of his work.    His most recent book, “Cougar: Ecology and Conservation” is the world’s most complete book on the ecology and management of that species.  Maurice is a wildlife photographer and painter.

Dr. Brian Miller 

Brian received a Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming in behavioral ecology and conservation of black-footed ferrets and then was awarded a Smithsonian Institution Fellowship. Brian worked with the conservation of the endangered black-footed ferret for a decade, then lived in Mexico for five years beginning an ongoing research project on jaguars and pumas in the dry tropical forest of Jalisco, Mexico. After seven years as a Coordinator of Conservation and Research at the Denver Zoological Foundation, Brian accepted a position to develop conservation and education programs at the Wind River Ranch Foundation. His main research interest concerns the role of highly interactive species (keystones) in regulating ecosystem processes, and how to improve protection for those species when designing reserves.  He has published 95 scientific articles, seven books, and has been on the board of five conservation organizations.  In 2009 he was given the Denver Zoo’s Annual Conservation Award.

Sherry Thompson

Sherry Thompson is a great-granddaughter of a Corona, NM sheep and cattle rancher. Her father left the southwest to become a distinguished foreign-service officer, and so she was raised mostly abroad. She became Program Officer for the Thaw Charitable Trust in 1997. As the Trust’s Executive Director since January, 2002, she oversees the Trust’s grant making in the areas of Art, Environment and Animal Welfare. Prior to moving ‘home’ to New Mexico, she served as Programs Officer for the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts in Miami, which identified high school seniors who excelled in the arts and resulted in the annual naming of the Presidential Scholars in the Arts. Before that, she was Associate and then Director of the Art in Embassies Program under contract to Department of State, which assembled and placed collections of art by American artists in over 100 foreign capitals on an ongoing basis. During that time, she also procured art for a new building of the World Bank and consulted on design of the Bank’s database for its extensive collection of art and antiquities.

Margo Cutler

Margo Cutler is a ranch broker with a special interest in wildlife conservation and the preservation of open space.  She has run her own real estate office in Santa Fe since 1983, and is licensed so as to be able to find ranches for conservation oriented clients in either New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming or Montana.

She has served on the Boards of Directors of the Santa Fe Community Foundation, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, the Rio de Tesuque Acequia Association, and the Santa Fe Conservation Trust, an organization which she helped to establish.