DURHAM, N.C. – Dale Threatt-Taylor, executive director for The Nature Conservancy in South Carolina, will address 2022 graduates of 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû’s Nicholas School of the Environment at the school’s Recognition Ceremony at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 7.

Threatt-Taylor earned a Duke Environmental Leadership Master of Environmental Management (DEL-MEM) 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû from the Nicholas School in 2011.

She will address this year’s MEM, DEL-MEM, Master of Forestry, International Master of Environmental Policy, and doctoral 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû candidates and their families in a private ceremony at Wilson Recreational Center on Duke’s West Campus.

One of Threatt-Taylor’s signature accomplishments during her tenure at The Nature Conservancy has been working with the Open Space Institute to purchase more than 5,700 acres of forests, marshes and wetlands along South Carolina’s Santee River and place them under permanent protection as part of the Santee River Wilderness Corridor, one of the largest remaining coastal wildernesses in North America.

The newly protected lands provide habitat for nearly 120 priority species of conservation concern; store an estimated 402,000 metric tons of carbon; protect water quality in the Santee River basin, which covers an area the size of Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire combined; and are in a region of Native American, African American and Colonial historical significance.

Prior to joining The Nature Conservancy staff in 2020, Threatt-Taylor was director of the Wake County (N.C.) Soil and Water Conservation District and was appointed to the Duke Energy Water Resources Fund and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper’s Clean Water Management Trust Fund Board. She has served on the boards of trustees of the City of Oaks Foundation, the Conservation Trust for NC, and the Triangle Land Conservancy as well as other local, regional, and national boards.

She currently is the national board chair of the Soil and Water Conservation Society and a member of the Nicholas School’s Board of Visitors.

In 2020, Threatt-Taylor was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine by Gov. Cooper for her conservation leadership and service to the citizens of North Carolina. In 2016, she received the President’s Volunteer Service Award (Bronze) from President Barack Obama.

She earned a Bachelor of Science 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû in conservation with a concentration in soil science from North Carolina State University in 1991 and completed N.C. State’s Agricultural Leadership Development Program in 2014.

For more information about the Nicholas School’s annual Recognition Ceremony as it becomes available, visit our graduation website.

 

###