Leslie Harroun named executive director of the Salazar Center for North American Conservation

Media contact:
Emily Barbo
Senior Communications Manager, Salazar Center for North American Conservation
emily.barbo@colostate.edu
978-407-7967

Denver, Colo. — Leslie Harroun joins Colorado State University this month as the new executive director of the Salazar Center for North American Conservation. Harroun has spent her career supporting holistic, human-centered solutions to environmental challenges and brings nearly three decades of philanthropic and non-profit management experience to the role. 

CSU President Amy Parsons introduced Harroun and welcomed her to her new role this morning at the opening of the Salazar Center’s fifth annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact.

“Leslie Harroun begins her leadership of the Salazar Center during a time when the Center is ideally poised for growth,” Parsons said. “Leslie brings to this work a strategic vision, strong connections across multiple sectors, and an entrepreneurial mindset. I look forward to working with her to support the Center’s work and deepen its connections to campus and to our global CSU community.”

The Salazar Center was co-founded in 2018 by former U.S. Secretary of the Interior, U.S. Senator, and current U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar and CSU System Chancellor (then-President) Tony Frank. Its mission is rooted in Salazar’s hope that people across North America can find common ground on the most pressing conservation challenges facing the continent. The Center is housed at the CSU Spur campus in north Denver.

For the past five years, the Center has worked to connect diverse leaders, communities, and resources across North America, with the goal of accelerating the pace and scale of equitable, innovative, and durable solutions for nature and all people. The Center does this work primarily through convenings and capacity-building programs, with a focus on supporting innovative new ideas, elevating diverse voices, and building bridges that connect academic research, community practice, policy development, and philanthropy.

Harroun comes to the Salazar Center having served most recently as executive in residence and senior fellow at The Democracy Collaborative. While there she worked with thought leaders, researchers, and communities to imagine a coherent, commonsense frame for an economy that builds community wealth within natural limits.  Before that, Harroun was the founding director of Partners for a New Economy, an international donor collaborative supporting economic thinking and acting designed to enable nature and all people to flourish. From 1998-2015, Harroun worked at the OAK Foundation, where she developed and managed its North American, European, and select global climate change portfolios, as well as its early marine conservation portfolio.

“I am honored and thrilled to have been given the opportunity to lead the Salazar Center. I look forward to applying my experience, skills, and network to continue building the Center into an institution that inspires and facilitates a new era for conservation across North America.  CSU’s credibility and reputation, its human resources, and its focus on innovation provide an exceptional platform from which to do this work. I anticipate learning a great deal in this role and anticipate collaborating with the Center’s diverse partners to make North America a model for valuing and regenerating our wildlands and waters,” said Harroun.

Harroun succeeds the Center’s inaugural director, Beth Conover, who retired earlier this year after nearly five years at the helm. 

“What makes the work of the Salazar Center so exciting is that it is based on the idea that we can move toward sustainability when we listen to different voices and empower communities to develop solutions,” Chancellor Tony Frank said. “Leslie Harroun’s career to this point demonstrates her commitment to this idea and also her ability to bring people together around a shared vision for the future. I am excited to see what the Salazar Center accomplishes during this next period under her leadership.”  

Over the course of the next year, Harroun will work with the Center’s External Advisory Board, staff, philanthropic partners, and external stakeholders to refresh the Center’s strategy going forward.  She expects to align the Center’s work with a shared and ambitious goal, such as the UN Biodiversity Conference target to protect at least 30 percent of the planet’s land and water by 2030, while advancing community agency and equity to achieve it.