Scott D. Klopfer named Conservation Management Institute executive director

6 Apr 2009

Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources has named Scott D. Klopfer as executive director of the Conservation Management Institute (CMI).

As executive director, Klopfer oversees day-to-day operations and management at CMI, a multidisciplinary research center within the College of Natural Resources. He manages current and developing projects, which are mostly funded by contracts and grants, while ensuring the center’s continued success. “We’ve got a great group of people here, and we mainly want to strengthen the CMI’s presence,” commented Klopfer. He does not wish to change the center’s direction, but rather reinforce its prominence and efficiency.

“Scott brings considerable experience and vision to his new leadership role at CMI,” affirmed Dean Mike Kelly. Klopfer, who has been involved with CMI since he was a graduate student, has been employed there for 13 years in numerous positions.

Klopfer takes over as executive director from Jeff Waldon, who will continue to work on current CMI projects on a part-time basis as he transitions to a research position with the Tropical Forest Foundation. CMI is assisting the Tropical Forest Foundation, an international foundation devoted to sustainable forestry in the tropics, with several issues related to their transitional planning, such as evaluating carbon trading as a strategy for sustainability, drafting a revision to their standard for wood products legal verification, developing a communications strategy, and evaluating a new training site in Belize.

Klopfer received his bachelor’s of science in environmental and forest biology from the State Univeristy of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, N.Y., and his master’s of science in fisheries and wildlife sciences from Virginia Tech.

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