Oconee River Land Trust is pleased to announce Dan Crescenzo as its new Executive Director. Dan replaces Steffney Thompson, who worked with ORLT for over 25 years and now serves as Director of UGA's Law School's new Land Conservation Clinic. Dan’s journey toward becoming Executive Director began when he moved to Georgia to attend UGA, where he published articles about the value of species and ecosystems while earning his PhD in Philosophy. In 2016, a few months before graduating, he started work at ORLT as Stewardship Coordinator, and over the next few years, increased his hours, later working as Stewardship Director. In Dan’s words, working for ORLT “has felt like coming home to something I love. My passion has always been for protecting the land and for work that puts me into regular contact with it — that is, for putting philosophy into practice.”
Dan brings a wealth of firsthand experience, knowledge, passion, and integrity to his new role. In his previous positions with ORLT, Dan walked hundreds of miles monitoring properties preserved by conservation easements that ORLT holds. He also spent time creating maps and analyzing habitats and details of these lands, and helped landowners to effectively steward their land. With his intimate knowledge of ORLT’s conservation easements and familiarity with ORLT’s policies and dedicated staff and board members, Dan is uniquely qualified for his new position.
You may have already met Dan on one of ORLT’s hikes, where he is always eager to share his understanding of the ecosystems and his wide-ranging knowledge of plants. We hope you can join us on one of our hikes this fall to see some of the beautiful land ORLT protects and welcome Dan into his new role. Check out our website to learn more about these upcoming hikes.