Bill Leahy

Co-Director, Central Coast Region

Bill joined LegacyWorks Group in 2022 as Santa Barbara Region Senior Project Director based in the Santa Barbara Region office. With 30 years of senior leadership experience in community-based land conservation, his expertise spans landscape-scale planning, developing regional public-private partnerships, strategic organizational development, fundraising, and coalition-building. As Executive Director of The Big Sur Land Trust and the Maryland Environmental Trust, Bill focused on repositioning the conservation movement and those organizations to be more diverse, connected, and aligned with 21st-century challenges related to building healthy and resilient local communities. His efforts promoted regional collaboration to achieve landscape-scale conservation and strategic partnerships to tackle land use issues tied to climate change, clean water, and environmental justice. Bill has held several leadership positions with The Nature Conservancy including a recent engagement as Deputy Director of the Jack & Laura Dangermond Preserve at Point Conception in Santa Barbara County, California. Bill also worked with the Conservancy from 1992 to 2003, directing land protection and regional landscape conservation efforts in California and Missouri. He is a former Chair of the California Council of Land Trusts Board. Before his land conservation career, Bill had a successful stint in commercial real estate in Washington, D.C. He graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Vanderbilt University.

Bill and his wife Lorien live in Santa Barbara with their border collie Mabel, and enjoy all manner of outdoor pursuits, music, gardening, and cooking.

< Return to Santa Barbara Team, or LegacyWorks Team