Maria Whitehead

During her professional career, Maria Whitehead has held positions as an ornithologist, professor, and conservation professional.   She was worked for 15 years in the direct conservation of land and water and the interdisciplinary realm of climate adaptation and community resilience.  As a coastal program manager for The Nature Conservancy, she worked at the land-water interface – helping to initiate a water fund program, establish oyster restoration sites, and protect tidal wetlands and wetland migration space.  Today, as Vice President and Director of Land for the Southeast at Open Space Institute, she works across the eastern United States on varied conservation projects and initiatives including landscape-scale conservation projects, comprehensive community engagement strategies, and conservation finance tactics.