Anne
Carlson

Anne is our Crown of the Continent Director overseeing the work to protect, restore, and connect the Crown’s wild places across multiple spatial scales, and to ensure equitable access to public lands and the outdoors for all communities.  Anne is a conservationist, scientist, and educator with more than 25 years of experience in wildlife and public lands management, environmental policy, and global environmental advocacy. As the Crown of the Continent Landscape Director for The Wilderness Society, she oversees work to protect, restore, and connect the Crown’s wild places while simultaneously ensuring equitable access to public lands and the outdoors for all communities.

Throughout her career, Anne has worked in deep partnership with tribal communities, religious leaders, state and federal agency staff, conservation partners, regional scientists, university staff, and the general public to co-create enduring solutions to the climate and extinction crises at landscape-scales; and by interweaving Indigenous Knowledge and modern-day science.

Before joining The Wilderness Society in 2009, Anne spent 15 years developing research and conservation projects on numerous large and small carnivore, primate, elephant, and antelope species across sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia with her colleagues at Cambridge University and the San Diego Zoo. She earned Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1995 and 2000, respectively, and is a Fulbright Scholar.

Anne lives with her husband and way too many animals in Choteau, Montana, and spends her spare time hiking, skiing, camping, and wildlife watching across Montana’s stunning public lands.