Anderson directs The Nature Conservancy’s Center for Resilient Conservation Science; the center provides science leadership, ecological analysis, and landscape assessments for conservation efforts across 50 states. He holds a PhD in ecology from the University of New Hampshire and has worked as a conservation scientist for more than 35 years (30 of those years with the Conservancy). Over the last decade, Anderson led the effort to identify and map climate-resilient lands and waters across the continental United States and has published widely on climate resilience, landscape dynamics, and biodiversity conservation. One of the original authors of the National Vegetation Classification, his current research focuses on identifying and mapping resilient freshwater networks as well as the intersection between biodiversity, ecological services, and climate change in terrestrial and aquatic systems. Anderson manages a team of seven spatial ecologists and tries (mostly unsuccessfully) to keep up with all their amazing work. In 2017 he received The Nature Conservancy’s Conservation Achievement Award, and in 2021 he received the Land Trust Alliance’s Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award. 

Outside of the Conservancy, Anderson serves as board chair for Northeast Wilderness Trust, a regional land trust dedicated to conserving forever-wild places where nature can thrive. 

Born in Colorado and addicted to the outdoors at an early age, the conservation scientist has worked as a naturalist in the Okefenokee Swamp, developed a multicultural ethnobotany program in San Francisco, directed National Wildlife Federation’s EarthTrek program in the Smoky Mountains, and run a small mountaineering program in the Southern Rockies. He now lives in Massachusetts with his wife, two kids (when they’re around), three cats, two goats, one dog, occasional chickens, and a wild patch of native plants.

Dr. Lucy Hutyra is an environmental ecologist investigating the impacts of urbanization on environmental carbon cycle dynamics. In 2023 she received a MacArthur Genius Grant for her work on efforts to mitigate extreme heat and other consequences of climate change in urban environments. She has also received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and was named a 2016 National Academy of Science Kavli Fellow. Hutyra earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Washington as well as both a Master of Arts and a PhD from Harvard University. In addition to her professorship at Boston University, Hutyra is an associate of the Arnold Arboretum and the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. She has published in a variety of scientific journals, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature, Journal of Geophysical Research, Global Change Biology, and Science of the Total Environment.

A conservation biologist, Gallagher earned a BS in biology from Loyola University, an MS in marine science from Northeastern University, and a PhD in ecosystem science and policy from the University of Miami.

Under his leadership, Beneath the Waves has conducted 20 expeditions worldwide, collaborated with over 100 researchers from various institutions, and published over 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers in journals. Many of those papers have advanced scientific discovery and catalyzed policy for threatened species.

Gallagher is a regular contributor to Discovery Channel’s Shark Week and National Geographic.