Biography for Jon Fisher

Jon Fisher is a senior officer for the Conservation Science Program at the Pew Charitable Trusts. In his current role at Pew he covers terrestrial, freshwater, and spatial science. He provides scientific expertise to inform & improve research projects, works on strategic explorations of new potential work, and helps to increase the impact of research through applying the Conservation Standards for strategic planning.

He has broad expertise across conservation science with deeper focus in agriculture, measures, spatial data analysis & remote sensing, climate mitigation and adaptation, and corporate sustainability.

Prior to joining the Pew Charitable Trusts, Jon spent 13 years at The Nature Conservancy. He worked on everything from organization-wide measures, building enterprise information systems to manage core data, studying how new knowledge spreads among colleagues, and even using a drone to measure water quality in small streams. He also worked with several major companies to identify ways for them to drive global sustainability improvements, as well as broader supply-chain initiatives around deforestation and sustainability metrics. In addition to his work on data, remote sensing, and agriculture, Jon worked on social science around knowledge diffusion and integrating social data into conservation initiatives. Prior to The Nature Conservancy, Jon worked at the University of Illinois to reduce the risk of airplanes striking birds.

In addition to scientific publications, he regularly blogs about a wide range of topics, and gives talks to a variety of audiences (from business executives, to donors, to middle schoolers, to the general public) in different formats (from plenary talks to panel discussions and everything in between). Jon has presented on sustainable agriculture, GIS and remote sensing, drones, green living, corporate sustainability, and much more (see his CV for a partial list). Jon has designed and presented several training workshops including how to publish spatial data as interactive web maps, and how to use mobile data collection tools for non-technical staff at airports to improve wildlife management. As a graduate of The Nature Conservancy's Science Impact Project, Jon has been trained in speaking at varied levels of complexity for different audiences, including through storytelling and improvisation. He is also a Certified End-Of-Life Specialist (CEOLS) who volunteers with hospice patients.

Jon received a master's degree in environmental engineering (with a stream ecology focus) and two simultaneous B.S. degrees (one in Forestry, and one in Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences, with concentrations in ecology and physics), all at the University of Illinois.