Beth Pratt
Regional Executive Director
California Regional Center
Beth Pratt has worked in environmental leadership roles for over 25 years, and in two of the country’s largest national parks: Yosemite and Yellowstone. As Regional Executive Director of the California Regional Center of the National Wildlife Federation, “I have the best job in the world” she says. “While advocating for the state’s remarkable animals, I get to travel around California and spend time with condors, mountain lions, porpoises, pika, and foxes, and work with some amazing people who help wildlife thrive.”
Before joining the Federation in 2011, she worked on sustainability and climate change programs for Xanterra Parks & Resorts in Yellowstone as its Director of Environmental Affairs. Prior to her role in Yellowstone, for nine years Beth served as the Vice President/CFO for the non-profit Yosemite Association (now Yosemite Conservancy) in Yosemite National Park. Beth graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Boston with bachelor's degrees in management and biological anthropology, and a minor in marketing. She also obtained an MBA from Regis University in Denver, and earned the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED AP credential.
Beth serves on the board of the non-profits Outdoor Afro and Save the Frogs!, and she has trained with Vice President Al Gore as a member of his Climate Reality Project Leadership Corps. Her conservation work has been featured by the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, BBC World Service, CBS This Morning, the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and NPR. She is the author of the novel The Idea of Forever and the official Junior Ranger Handbook for Yosemite, and her new book, When Mountain Lions are Neighbors: People and Wildlife Working It Out In California, was published by Heyday Books in 2016. She has given a TEDx talk about coexisting with wildlife called, “How a Lonely Cougar in Los Angeles Inspired the World,” and is featured in the new documentary, “The Cat that Changed America.”
Although Beth travels extensively throughout California for her work, she makes her home outside of Yosemite, “her north star,” with her husband, five dogs, two cats, and the mountain lions, bears, foxes, frogs, and other wildlife that frequent her NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat backyard.
Beth's book, When Mountain Lions are Neighbors, is available for purchase.
Check out the National Wildlife Federation’s California Facebook page at www.facebook.com/NWFCalifornia.
