Newswise — Kathryn S. Fuller, president and chief executive officer of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), will be a featured speaker at Clarkson University's 112th Commencement on Sunday, May 8.
Fuller will bring her message of environmental responsibility to the more than 700 Clarkson students receiving bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees that day.
She will also receive an honorary degree from Clarkson in recognition of her enormous contribution to the protection of wildlife and wildlands throughout the world.
In 1989 Fuller became the first woman to lead a major international environmental membership group. During her 16 years as president and chief executive officer of the WWF, she has received acclaim for aggressively advancing the organization's wildlife and habitat conservation initiatives and encouraging inclusion of women in grassroots conservation programs. Under her leadership the WWF has more than doubled its membership, tripled its revenue, and expanded its presence around the globe.
A lawyer who has done field work studying Tanzanian wildebeests and Caribbean coral reefs, Fuller is the prototype of the modern environmentalist: part activist, part scientist, and part lawyer. Fuller received a bachelor of arts degree from Brown University and juris doctor degree from the University of Texas. She pursued graduate studies in Marine, estuarine and environmental science at the University of Maryland. She has received several honorary doctorates and awards, including the U.N. Environment Programme's Global 500.
Under Fuller's direction the WWF launched the Living Planet Campaign, an ambitious blueprint for global environmental triage. The WWF identified 200 key habitats, or ecoregions, which are critical to the planet's biodiversity. One of the Campaigns' successes is the 2000 decision by Brazil to allocate $270 million in a 10-year effort aimed at saving 100 million acres of the Amazon from development.
Fuller serves on the boards of several nonprofit and academic institutions, including Brown University, Resources for the Future, and the Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza, and is chair of the board of directors of the Ford Foundation, and a member of the board of directors of Alcoa Inc.
Clarkson University, located in Potsdam, New York, is an independent university with a reputation for developing innovative leaders in engineering, business and the arts and sciences. Its academically rigorous, collaborative culture involves 2,700 undergraduates and 400 graduate students in hands-on team projects, multidisciplinary research, and real-world challenges. Many faculty members achieve international recognition for their scholarship and research, and teaching is a priority at every level. For more information, visit http://www.clarkson.edu.
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