Board of Directors

Diana Hadley, President
Diana is president of the Northern Jaguar Project. Now retired as associate curator of ethnohistory and director of the Arizona State Museum’s Office of Ethnohistorical Research at the University of Arizona, she specializes in the history of land use and ecological change in the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico. She has co-authored book-length studies of Aravaipa Canyon, San Rafael Valley, Bonita Creek, the Arizona-New Mexico borderlands, and upper San Pedro Valley. Raised in Arizona, Diana is the former operator of a family ranch. She has served on the board of directors of Native Seeds/SEARCH, the Audubon Research Ranch, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission. Diana has organized conferences on grassland restoration, Native American sacred sites, deforestation in the Sierra Madres, prairie dog ecology, and restoration of the Santa Cruz River. She is one of the incorporators of Northern Jaguar Project, Inc. and has served as president since its inception.

Carlos A. López González, Ph.D., Board Member
Carlos has been researching jaguars and other carnivore species in Mexico and the U.S. since 1992. He is co-author of Borderland Jaguars, the most comprehensive analysis of the historic presence of jaguars in the region. Having received his Ph.D. in science from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Carlos is currently a research professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro. His main interests are in predator-prey interactions, vertebrate community ecology, and the behavior and conservation of large mammalian carnivores. Carlos also works as a research associate for the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative and the Denver Zoo.

Craig Miller, Vice President
Craig has been an active wildlife conservationist in the Southwest since 1987 and has led Defenders of Wildlife’s regional wolf and jaguar conservation programs as Southwest representative since 1993. He has served on federal recovery teams for the Mexican gray wolf and cactus ferruginous pygmy owl, as well as the steering committee for the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Plan. Craig is a founding member of the Northern Jaguar Project and a former board member of the Arizona League of Conservation Voters. He also serves on the steering committee of the Southern Rockies Wolf Restoration Project, the executive committee of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project, and as a conservation fellow with The Rewilding Institute. Craig has a B.S. in Public Administration/Natural Resources from Northern Arizona University and is an alumnus of both the Lesley College Graduate School and the National Audubon Society Expedition Institute. Prior to joining Defenders of Wildlife, Craig worked as an outdoor adventure guide and naturalist.

Laura Paulson, Board Member
Laura is The Nature Conservancy’s Arid Lands Program Manager and has experience in the fields of conservation and rural development since 1997. Laura is responsible for providing strategic direction and day-to-day management of The Nature Conservancy’s conservation work in northern Mexico. Prior to her current position, she was the Conservancy’s Private Lands Conservation Program Manager and worked across Mexico to develop and implement strategies focused on private and social lands conservation. Laura has served as a consultant for the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy and the Latin American Area Center of the University of Arizona, where she examined rural land use issues in Mexico, and also with the Gunung Palung Community Forest Management Project in Indonesia focusing on the creation of a community-managed timber concession. With a M.S. in Latin American Studies from the University of Arizona, Laura also serves on the management board of the Sonoran Joint Venture.

Matt Skroch, Treasurer
Matt has worked to integrate science, policy development, and grassroots organizing to protect the Southwest’s imperiled wildlands and wildlife since 1998. For ten years, he led conservation initiatives in the Madrean Archipelago of Arizona and Sonora for the Sky Island Alliance, where he served in a number of roles including Programs Director, then Executive Director until 2009. Matt launched the Sky Island Alliance’s Northern Mexico Conservation Program, which is committed to protecting landscape linkages and core habitat for jaguars and ocelots in collaboration with landowners and Mexican conservation agencies. He is also credited with launching the Madrean Archipelago Biodiversity Assessment, the first comprehensive inventory of biodiversity across the northern Madrean Biogeographic Province of Sonora, Mexico. Matt has a strong affection for wilderness, and he has led legislative-based conservation campaigns to protect imperiled landscapes such as the Tumacacori Highlands, where resident jaguars have been documented in southeastern Arizona. He currently serves as Senior Associate with the Pew Environment Group, working to empower conservation organizations across the West to protect wilderness on public lands. Matt has a B.S. from Iowa State University and an M.S. from the University of Arizona, where he studied as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow.

Peter Warshall, Ph.D., Secretary
Peter has worked for more than 40 years on conservation, biodiversity protection, and community development projects in Africa, Latin America, and North America for the United Nations, USAID, various conservation groups and businesses, and Native American governments. Peter’s multi-faceted areas of expertise include natural history, natural resource management, environmental impact analysis, and conflict resolution and consensus building among divergent interest groups. He is an expert on the Madrean Sky Island archipelago as well as the endangered Mt. Graham red squirrel. He has worked for the Point Reyes Bird Observatory on migratory bird habitat conservation, and as an elected official, Peter pioneered the conversion of sewerage plant effluent into a bird sanctuary. He has served on the board of directors of the All Species Foundation, Sky Island Alliance, Scientists for the Preservation of Mt. Graham, RES (anthropology), Tallberg Foundation (Sweden, sustainability), World Innovation Foundation, and is a member of the Global Business Network. Peter received a B.A. in Biology and a Ph.D. in Biology and Anthropology from Harvard University. He received a Fulbright scholarship for studies in mammalogy (Ecole de Medicín) and Anthropology (Sorbonne). He edited the environmental sections of the Whole Earth Catalog and its magazines from 1973 to 1996. He has also been instrumental as co-director of Bioneers’ Dreaming New Mexico initiative.

Rick Williams, Board Member
Rick is one of the incorporators of Northern Jaguar Project, Inc. and is a founding board member. He served as treasurer from the organization’s inception until 2012. Prior to the formalization of the Northern Jaguar Project, Rick was a wildlife photographer in the Northern Rockies with works appearing at art shows, regional galleries, the National Museum of Wildlife Art, and Grand Teton National Park’s visitor centers. After becoming familiar with the jaguars of the Southwest, Rick moved from Driggs, Idaho, to Tucson, Arizona, to assist Carlos López González in maintaining his jaguar research and budding conservation project in the Sierra Madre foothills. Rick worked as volunteer organizer and coordinator during the early stages of the Northern Jaguar Project’s development. Today, most of his photographic work is focused on documenting the diverse flora, fauna, and land of the Northern Jaguar Reserve.