Diane Rudin Bio | The Nature Conservancy

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Freshwater: Diane Rudin

Profile

Diane Rudin, Deputy Director, Great Rivers Partnership.

Diane Rudin

Deputy Director, Great Rivers Partnership

Contact Information

E-mail: drudin@tnc.org

Brief Biography

“Growing up hunting for wild mushrooms and fishing in the Illinois River Valley profoundly influenced who I am today. I feel privileged to work on behalf of this river and for great rivers around the world.”

Diane Rudin serves as Deputy Director for The Nature Conservancy’s Great Rivers Partnership (GRP), a program she helped found in 2005 by bringing together a number of strategic and financial partners. Through the GRP, Diane initiated the Conservancy’s first partnership with the navigation industry. She continues to connect with that sector—as well as leaders from agriculture and other major industries—sharing the economic and environmental benefits of sustainable river basin management.

In collaboration with domestic and international philanthropy staff throughout the Conservancy, Diane has raised over $73 million dollars to advance freshwater conservation. Through the GRP these funds have catalyzed extensive work on the Mississippi, Yangtze and Paraná-Paraguay river systems. Diane also oversees operations and communications for the GRP program.

She first joined the Conservancy in 1995 as outreach coordinator for a community-based conservation process for the Mackinaw River Watershed in Illinois. In that role, she helped build a strategic plan for watershed conservation by engaging landowners, volunteers and other stakeholders such as federal, state and local agencies.

Diane has traveled extensively throughout the U.S., and to Mexico, China and Brazil to promote awareness for the Conservancy’s freshwater efforts. She has a degree in secondary education and taught high school biology, physics and mathematics for eight years prior to her Conservancy career. In her spare time, Diane loves spending time with her husband Randy at their family cabin on the backwaters of the Illinois River.