North Olympic Land Trust names new executive director
Published 12:01 am Sunday, April 15, 2012
PORT ANGELES — The North Olympic Land Trust has hired Port Angeles resident Tom Sanford as its new executive director.
Sanford, 38, fills the position vacated by former Executive Director Greg Good, who accepted a position with the national Land Trust Accreditation Commission in December 2011.
From 2005 to 2011, Sanford was the executive director of Olympic Park Institute, the campus of national nonprofit NatureBridge, which provides environmental educational programs in Olympic National Park.
“To me, this is just a natural fit,” Sanford said.
“This job is a perfect opportunity to match my passion for land conservation and the wild beauty of the Olympic Peninsula with the skills and experience I’ve accrued over my career as a nonprofit executive.”
He will begin work Monday at the organization at 104 N. Laurel St., Suite 104, Port Angeles.
“I am delighted that Tom is joining our North Olympic Land Trust team,” said David Morris, president of the agency’s board of directors and a former superintendent of Olympic National Park.
“Tom has a proven record in the community as a leader with both a long-term vision and a day-to-day understanding of managing a nonprofit organization,” Morris added.
First public appearance
Sanford will make his first public appearance as executive director at the NOLT Conservation Breakfast at 8 a.m. Friday, April 27, at the Red Lion Hotel, 221 N. Lincoln St.
The breakfast is free, with an RSVP to Matthew Randazzo, land trust public relations consultant, at matthew@nolt.org or 360-460-8823.
Sanford said he looks forward to expanding the scale of the organization’s land conservation mission in addition to maintaining services to property owners who have signed permanent legal agreements to protect special qualities of their lands.
“I am extremely passionate about the land trust mission of land conversation in this place that I care so deeply about,” he said.
A native of the Seattle area, Sanford said he has had a lifelong love affair with the Olympic Peninsula since backpacking in the park as a Boy Scout.
“As I got a little older, my time hiking on the Olympic Peninsula is when my childhood love of the outdoors solidified into the passion for wild places that has been the foundation of my adult professional life.”
Sanford and his wife, Carrie, realized his dream of living on the Olympic Peninsula when he was hired in 2002 to be the program director for Olympic Park Institute, where he was promoted to executive director in 2005.
The Sanfords have a 7-year-old daughter, Abby.
The North Olympic Land Trust serves the communities of the North Olympic Peninsula to conserve ecologically and economically vital land.
Visit www.northolympiclandtrust.org, phone 360-417-1815 or email info@northolympiclandtrust.org.
