Sacha Spector, Ph.D.

Sacha Spector is the program director for the environment at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, where he oversees all environmental conservation grant-making of the foundation. 

Previously, Spector was director of conservation science at Scenic Hudson, leading the group’s efforts on climate change, land conservation planning and natural resource stewardship. There, he developed sea level rise and climate change adaptation initiatives in close cooperation with communities and state agencies while prioritizing land acquisitions and ecological restoration projects focused on the region’s most biologically important sites. Spector also managed the invertebrate conservation program at the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History and, prior to that, worked as a field trainer and researcher at Conservation International in Washington, D.C.

Spector maintains positions as an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University’s Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology and as a visiting scientist at the American Museum of Natural History. He has earned recognition for his conservation expertise through grants and awards from NASA, National Science Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Society and Zoological Society of London. Spector has also authored and/or co-authored more than 30 research papers, books and articles. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in ecology from the University of Connecticut and his Bachelor of Science degree in environmental biology from Yale University.