Richard holds a BA and JD from Florida State University, and an MPA in Coastal Resources Management from the University of West Florida. Richard’s career has been devoted to conservation, beginning as a city planner in Pensacola, Florida, where he helped create the Escambia Bay Bluffs Park. After moving to the Northwest almost 30 years ago, he worked for the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority and then spent 15 years working for King County. While there, he focused on protecting habitat, working farms and forests, implementing a public benefit rating system and managing a multi-county salmon recovery effort. He then joined the Trust for Public Land in Georgia, creating new parks in Atlanta for the Atlanta Beltline and preserving land along the Chattahoochee River. His conservation experience spans large and small projects: in Alabama he worked for both the Nature Conservancy and a local land trust.