Media Contacts
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Tracey Stone
The Nature Conservancy
Phone: (602) 738-1586
Email: tstone@tnc.org
Two new employees at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in New Mexico will help develop solutions for growing climate and other environmental challenges facing our land, water and well-being.
Paul Blaney will serve as TNC’s new director of development. He will set state fundraising goals and build strategies that will range from meeting new donors to leading multi-year fundraising campaigns. Our donor’s financial commitments support everything from land and water conservation to developing solutions to offset climate change.
Blaney is a seasoned nonprofit and fundraising executive with more than 20 years of leadership experience and success in organizations serving diverse, underrepresented and marginalized populations. Most recently, he supervised a team that led a $10 million capital campaign effort and upheld a $3 million annual fundraising goal.
My goal is to amplify the voices of the philanthropic community in New Mexico to strengthen the commitment to preserve the natural world and address our growing climate challenges.
On the conservation side, Matt Piccarello is TNC’s new forest and watershed health manager for New Mexico. In this role, Piccarello will focus on building collaborative and community-based solutions for forest and watershed management through such initiatives as the Rio Grande Water Fund. Building resilient lands and communities will help ensure our future generations can enjoy nature.
Community-based natural resource management...is about building relationships with people, communities, agencies, non-profits and leaders so you can collaborate on conservation projects that positively impact everyone.
“My passion for community-based natural resource management has taken me around the world,” Piccarello said. “It’s about building relationships with people, communities, agencies, non-profits and leaders so you can collaborate on conservation projects that positively impact everyone. By working together, we can make a difference,” Matt said.
Prior to joining the team at TNC, Piccarello worked for the Forest Stewards Guild on youth development and community-based forestry projects. He earned master’s degrees in community and regional planning and water resources from the University of New Mexico.
The two new positions bring TNC’s staff in New Mexico to 13 people.
The Nature Conservancy is a global conservation organization dedicated to conserving the lands and waters on which all life depends. Guided by science, we create innovative, on-the-ground solutions to our world’s toughest challenges so that nature and people can thrive together. We are tackling climate change, conserving lands, waters and oceans at an unprecedented scale, providing food and water sustainably and helping make cities more sustainable. Working in more than 70 countries and territories, we use a collaborative approach that engages local communities, governments, the private sector, and other partners. To learn more, visit nature.org or follow @nature_press on Twitter.