Foundation's Directors Recognized for Growing the Good

Foundation Directors Recognized for Excellence, Service

 Here at the Aldo Leopold Foundation, we are blessed year after year to work with, and benefit from the leadership of, so many esteemed individuals serving on our board of directors. The depth and breadth of talent and experience each one brings to guide and amplify our work carrying a land ethic to the four corners of the world is as humbling as it is enriching. Our accomplishments are not possible without the foundation’s inspiring directors.

 We could go on and on lauding our awesome leaders, but we’ll let recent recognition and awards do the trumpeting for us. Over the past few weeks alone, four different Leopold Foundation board members were singled out by world-leading organizations and institutions for their contributions to a far better earth than one without them.

 Below, in no particular order, are short synopses of the four recently celebrated Aldo Leopold Foundation directors and links to their larger stories. Congratulations, Eduardo, Dede, Jack, and Marsha!

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Eduardo Santana

In early March, the University of Guadalajara awarded Eduardo Santana the highest honor it gives its professors: Emeritus Professor. The awardee goes through a complex, rigorous voting process by peers and colleauges.  Santana’s career conservation accomplishments across much of the western hemisphere (including a post-graduate degree under the tutelage of Leopold Foundation senior fellow Dr. Stanley Temple at UW-Madison) are far too extensive to list here, but this video tells his amazing story.

Anne “Dede” Neal Petri

Awarded for “her tireless service on behalf of plants and the spaces created to showcase them,” Dede will be presented with the Garden Club of America’s 2024 Distinguished Service Medal in April at their annual convention. Each year, the GCA awards national medals to individuals and organizations whose endeavors align with its mission to cultivate the bond among people, plants, and the environment. These medals are the highest honor that the GCA bestows. Petri was the 42^rd president of The Garden Club of America, serving from 2017-2019. During that time, the GCA received the National Audubon Society Rachel Carson Women in Conservation Award. Learn much more about our foundation’s own Dede and her impressive work here.‍

Jack Salzwedel

University of Wisconsin-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs and American Family Insurance announced on February 28th the establishment of the Jack Salzwedel Distinguished Faculty Chair in Business and Regulation. This new endowed chair, the first of its kind at the La Follette School, was made possible by a generous $3 million donation from American Family Insurance. It will “honor the former American Family Insurance Chair and CEO Jack Salzwedel’s remarkable leadership and career, invaluable support for the La Follette School, reputation for strategic and innovative thinking, and commitment to the public good.” And that’s just the first blush of Jack’s story. Get the full picture of Jack’s leadership and impact  here.‍

Marsha Lindsay

As many Midwest marketing professionals have known for years, Leopold Foundation director Marsha Lindsay’s pioneering career has been behind the marketing excellence of thousands of companies and organizations for decades. In late February, Madison Magazine put the laurels on it by naming her the “Best of Madison Business” for her ongoing work “with countless CEOs, top executives and boards of Fortune 100 companies from all over the world.” While her work advising the foundation’s marketers and initiatives has been invaluable, learn more about how invaluable Marsha has been to the wider world  here.

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Congratulations and thank you to all our directors for your work to grow a land ethic and make the world better for all people and all places!