The Round River Conservation Studies Board of Trustees is pleased to announce the appointment of Doug Milek as our new Executive Director. Doug replaces our longtime Founder and Executive Director, Dennis Sizemore. Doug has worked on many facets of Round River’s conservation efforts for 24 years with a focus on directing and expanding Round River’s highly successful Student Programs.
Doug joined Round River in 2000 to help lead our initial field efforts on the Taku River. Prior to working with Round River, he received a bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Wyoming and applied that degree throughout the West in fisheries management, and researching furbearers, songbirds, swans, owls and seabirds. On the Taku River, where Grizzly bear and salmon monitoring expanded to include Traditional Ecological Knowledge and working with local communities, Doug enjoyed the dynamic camaraderie of scientists, elders, and visionary leaders.
In 2003, Doug took over directing the singular student program in Namibia, and has overseen the programs’ expansion to British Columbia, Ecuador, Chile, Botswana, Costa Rica, Belize, Mongolia, and the United States. With Doug’s guidance, the Student Programs have continued to emphasize the unique opportunity of students contributing to conservation work alongside our local partners. He earned a master’s degree in Environmental Studies in 2009 from the University of Montana focusing on applied conservation and education.
Doug’s decades of experience directing the Student Program and supporting Round River’s conservation science staff and partners make him an exceptional individual for the role of Executive Director. We are confident under his leadership, the organization’s success and impact in achieving its mission and vision will continue to flourish.
As Executive Director, Doug will direct Round River’s conservation science and student programs and provide strategic leadership to the development of new initiatives to strengthen and expand the organization’s fulfillment of our mission to conserve wild landscapes through ecological research and partnerships with local cultures and communities, government agencies, and other institutions.
“The board is honored that Doug has agreed to serve as the new Executive Director. Doug is an experienced leader who has demonstrated a respectable commitment to Round River’s ecological research, conservation, and education mission. We look forward to working with him on strengthening and expanding the important ecological research, conservation, and education work of Round River Conservation Studies.”
