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Founded in 1965, Sand County Foundation has expanded from caretaker of the 120 acre Leopold Memorial Reserve to advising the managers of hundreds of thousands of acres of land in several countries. The Foundation works with private landholders to improve the quality of their lands through science, ethics, and incentives.
Senior Advisors

Mr. Thomas Bourland

Mr. Thomas Bourland
Mr. Bourland served as president of the Louisiana chapter of the Wildlife Society and is currently the vice president of Thomas Bourland and Associates, Inc., a forestry, wildlife and environmental consulting firm. Prior to his present position, he was the manager for wildlife ecology for International Paper’s mid-south region. Mr. Bourland is a graduate of Mississippi State University.

Dr. Stephen R. Carpenter
 Dr. Stephen R. Carpenter
Dr. Carpenter is Halverson Professor of Limnology and Professor of Zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he directs the North Temperate Lakes Long-Term Ecological Research site as well as a diverse program of whole-ecosystem experiments. He is an ecosystem ecologist known for his work on large-scale experiments and adaptive ecosystem management. Dr. Carpenter, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, has received many awards for distinguished research, including a Pew Fellowship in Conservation and Environment, the G.E. Hutchinson Medal of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, the R.H. MacArthur Award from the Ecological Society of America, the Per Brinck Award in Limnology, the Excellence in Ecology Prize for Limnetic Ecology, honors from the UW - Madison campus, and election to the Ralf Yorque Society. He received a B.A. from Amherst College (1974), M.S. from University of Wisconsin-Madison (1976), and Ph.D. from U.W. Madison (1979) . A full biographical sketch and publication list may be viewed here.
Ms. Suzanne Hefty
 Ms. Suzanne Hefty
With a Bachelor's degree from Northwestern University, Ms. Hefty spent her professional life as a designer of commercial interiors. She is the past president of the board for the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts. In June 2002, Ms. Hefty will assume the role of chairman of the board of directors for the Milwaukee Art Museum/West (Waukesha County). Married to Thomas R. Hefty, she has four children.
Mr. Craig Kennedy
 Mr. Craig Kennedy 
Mr. Kennedy has been president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) since 1995. GMF, a Washington-based $225 million public charity, is an independent American organization created in 1972 as a permanent memorial to the Marshall Plan. The Fund'’s annual budget is almost $13 million and its endowment is over $220 million. Mr. Kennedy began his career in 1980 as a program officer at the Joyce Foundation in Chicago. From 1983 to 1986, he was vice president of programs for Joyce. As president of the Joyce Foundation from 1986 to 1992, Mr. Kennedy built the Foundation'’s environmental program and launched a new program on U.S. immigration policy. He left the Joyce Foundation to work for Richard J. Dennis, a Chicago investor and philanthropist. During this same period, Mr. Kennedy created a consulting firm working with nonprofit and public sector clients including the City of Chicago and the Environmental Defense Fund. He serves on the board of several nonprofit organizations including the Environmental Resources Trust, the LaSalle Adams Fund and New Profit Inc. Mr. Kennedy is also an independent trustee and chair of the audit committee for the open-end mutual funds of Van Kampen Investments.
Dr. Paul G. Risser
 Dr. Paul G. Risser
Dr. Paul G. Risser is the chief executive officer for The Oklahoma State System of Higher Education. He leads a state system comprised of 25 state colleges and universities, nine constituent agencies, two higher education centers and independent colleges and universities coordinated with the state system. Before assuming the Oklahoma Chancellor position, Dr. Risser was president of Oregon State University, where he led the university to record enrollment and impressive growth over a seven-year span. His professional background also includes serving as president of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio; provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of New Mexico; and chief of the Illinois Natural History Survey. Dr. Risser is an internationally recognized biologist who currently serves as associate member of the Paris-based Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), where he also served as Secretary General from 1995-1998. He also serves as chairman of the Ecosystem Panel for the National Academy of Sciences and on the Board of Trustees for the Institute of Ecosystem Studies. Dr. Risser was appointed as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1985 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994. He has consulted, or served as an advisor, for many prestigious science organizations, including the National Science Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences, and agencies conducting scientific research and public policy development, including the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Park Service. Dr. Risser and his wife, Les, are parents of six grown children.
Mr. Toby E. Sherry
 Mr. Toby E. Sherry
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Mr. Sherry, worked for 37 years at the Firststar Bank in Madison, WI where he rose to the position of a Senior Vice President. He then served as the banking commissioner for the State of Wisconsin for a period of four years. Currently a Senior Advisor to Sand County Foundation, Mr. Sherry also serves on many other Boards including the John A. Johnson Foundation, Hy-Cite Corporation and Ducks Unlimited. Married with four children, he has traveled extensively and has been a volunteer for ACDI/VOCA - a non-profit organization that promotes economic growth in emerging democracies.
Mr. Peter Stent
 Mr. Peter Stent
Mr. Stent, 59, is a practitioner of conservation principles and the land ethic supported by Aldo Leopold’. A rancher and active conservationist, he has been a principal in numerous wetland and restoration projects. Prior to his recent full-time commitment to ranching and conservation activities, Mr. Stent was a venture capitalist and a general partner at Rubicon Ventures. During this time, he served as a member of the Board for the National Audobon Society, Wildlife Associates and the California Waterfowl Association.
Mr. James Wood
 Mr. James Wood
Mr. Wood is currently president of Wood Communications Group, a public relations and market research firm specializing in strategic planning and governmental affairs. He is a recognized authority on the development and implementation of public policy, and has had significant experience in facilitation and mediation. In 1972, Mr. Wood became Executive Assistant to Wisconsin Governor Patrick J. Lucey, a position he held until 1974 when he resigned to manage the Governor'’s successful re-election campaign. In late 1974, he became Deputy Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Administration where he was responsible for internal management of the department and for overseeing labor relations with the state’s 23,000 employees. In 1976, Mr. Wood founded and served as the first president of a private “think tank” dedicated to research and analysis of cutting-edge public policy issues. During hi’s five-year tenure as president, the center produced seminal works on, and conducted demonstration projects in, environmental mediation, labor relations, public employee pension fund investment practices, education techniques, state tax policies and innovations in criminal justice policies.
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