In 2012, Dr. Doug Meffert joined a strong Louisiana team focused on Mississippi River Delta restoration and the protection of many globally significant Important Bird Areas, including Audubon’s work in the Rainey Conservation Alliance and coastal waterbird conservation efforts.

He has a long history in the state, most recently as director of project development and associate professor at Tulane University’s Payson Center for International Development and as the executive director of RiverSphere, an initiative to develop a new campus for the university oriented to water resources and renewable energy.

Prior to those posts, Doug was deputy director of the Center for Bioenvironmental Research, a joint project of Tulane and Xavier Universities. In addition, Doug has served as Tulane’s representative on a range of coastal research and policy committees, including the Framework Development Team for Louisiana’s 2012 Coastal Master Plan and the Deepwater Horizon Science and Engineering Review Team.

As a teacher, Doug focuses on sustainable development and climate change. He has run his own consulting firm specializing in urban park habitat creation for birding and other recreational services, coastal adaptation, disaster recovery and emergency preparedness. He is widely published and is a sought-after international speaker.

Doug received a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and is a research fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Mass. He holds Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Engineering degrees from Tulane University and a doctorate in environmental science and engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.