James "Buddy" Powell

Vice President for National and Aquatic Conservation Programs, Wildlife Trust

Dr. James Powell is Vice President for National and Aquatic Conservation programs of Wildlife Trust, a non-profit research and conservation organization. He is responsible for developing and coordinating national Bioscape Initiatives, an approach to conservation within a region that emphasizes biodiversity, ecology and health. He also leads national and international research and conservation programs that focus on endangered aquatic species, estuaries and capacity building and professional development of non-US nationals involved with aquatic research and conservation.

Dr. Powell is a native of Florida and began his career assisting Dr. Daniel Hartman with his pioneering work on manatees in Crystal River in the late 1960s. During his thirty-year plus career, Dr. Powell has studied manatees in such diverse regions as Belize, Ghana, Cameroon, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Gambia, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, in the Caribbean and Florida. He spent nearly 10 years living in extremely remote areas of West Africa while studying manatees, rain forest biodiversity and the habits of the little known forest elephant.

He has received numerous awards including the 2000 Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation and a 2000 Leadership Award from the Florida Marine Research Institute. Dr. Powell serves on numerous national and international technical and advisory committees. He earned his BS in Wildlife Biology from the University of Florida, his MMA in Marine Resource Management from the University of Washington and his Ph.D. in Zoology from Cambridge University, England. He has published over 30 peer-reviewed articles and his photographs have appeared in numerous magazines and books. Dr. Powell speaks French and he is a licensed aircraft pilot.