Meet AAG’s Executive Director Gary Langham

Gary is a broadly trained scientist with 20+ years of experience working on science-based solutions for people and the environment. He has published peer-review papers on a wide range of topics, including climate change, biogeography, seabirds, evolution, genetics, physiology, animal behavior, and conservation. Recently, he was recruited to become the Executive Director of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) – a vibrant, academic society based in Washington, DC. The AAG represents 9,000 members worldwide who work at the intersection of place, people, and the environment. Before this, Gary was Vice President and Chief Scientist at the National Audubon Society, where he directed Audubon’s wide-reaching scientific initiatives and studies. His team used 100 years of Audubon data to create the first comprehensive analysis of the effects of future climate change on 588 North American bird species. The release had over 2 billion media impressions in 1700 news outlets worldwide, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, National Geographic, Popular Mechanics, WIRED, NBC Nightly News, National Public Radio, and The Colbert Report. In 2000, he founded the Neotropical Grassland Conservancy to foster grassland research with grants and equipment. He completed a National Science Foundation Bioinformatics postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley, and he received his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University.