Bill Leahy

Co-Director, Central Coast Region

Bill is the Central Coast Region co-director based in the Santa Barbara office. Bill has led community-based land conservation programs and partnerships for 30 years. Bill's focus with LWG includes supporting and facilitating the advancement of community conservation priorities, including ecological restoration, climate resilience, public-private partnerships, and coalition-building. As Executive Director of The Big Sur Land Trust and the Maryland Environmental Trust, Bill helped facilitate shifts in focus to prioritize land and water conservation as a tool for supporting healthy and resilient local communities and tackle land use issues tied to climate change, clean water, and environmental justice. Bill has also worked in several leadership capacities with The Nature Conservancy in the southern and central coast, including as Deputy Director of the Jack & Laura Dangermond Preserve at Point Conception in Santa Barbara County, California. 

Bill credits his commitment to land conservation and community service to his parents, who ensured he spent much much time outdoors backpacking and paddling. He also enjoys reading biographies and history, especially when it weaves in connections to natural science and conservation. Bill received his Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University and spent his early career in Commercial Real Estate in Washington, DC. Bill helped to found Forever Maryland, an organization dedicated to building a more connected and resilient land trust movement in Maryland. He is a former California Council of Land Trusts Board member.

Bill and his wife, Lorien, live in Santa Barbara and enjoy backpacking, camping, fishing, music, gardening, and cooking.

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