Alison Pearce has been the Executive Director of Nature Forward since January of 2025. Before that she served as the Deputy Director for Programs, the Restoration Director and the Volunteer Manager during a decade of employment with the organization.

Alison has been involved in conservation research, education and practice for over twenty years, beginning with an experience as an Agroforestry volunteer with the Peace Corps in El Salvador.  She completed a Ph.D. in Ecological Anthropology at Stanford University, where her research included studies of ranchland conversion in Montana, as well as indigenous forest management in Panama. 

Most of Alison’s free time is spent with plants, either in her native plant garden or out on trails with her husband – unless she is attending a baseball game or concert for one of her two children.