John Adams
Founding Director, Natural Resources Defense Council
John H. Adams is the Founding Director and former President of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He co-founded the NRDC in 1970 as an organization of public interest lawyers focused on the formation and enforcement of emerging environmental laws. John created an influential non-profit organization of lawyers and scientists with more than 1.2 million members and online activists nationwide. John has a B.A. in History from Michigan State and an L.L.B. from Duke University Law School. Prior to NRDC, he worked as the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. John serves as Chairman of the Board of the Open Space Institute. He is also on the boards of the League of Conservation Voters, Woods Hole Research Center, Center for American Progress and Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. John has also served on the Pew Oceans Commission, the President’s Council on Sustainable Development and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Common Sense Initiative. Over the years, he has received several notable honors and environmental awards including being named one of the National Audubon’s 100 Champions of Conservation. He was also the recipient of an honorary doctor of laws from Duke University, as well as, Duke University’s Distinguished Alumni Award and Duke University Law School’s Charles J. Murphy Award. John lives in upstate New York with his wife Patricia. They and their three grown children and six grandchildren enjoy spending time at their home in the Catskills on the Beaverkill River.
