As director of environment, conservation and sustainable communities, Dolores Wesson will work with existing and prospective donors to expand the level of charitable giving to meet the growing needs in Baja California, Northwest Mexico and the Gulf of California. These regions are currently facing environmental and conservation challenges that ICF will address promoting conservation and sustainable communities in those regions.

Before joining ICF, Dolores was principal investigator and manager of the Southern California Coastal Storms Program located at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego; and senior analyst for science and policy at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  She was deputy director, University of California Sea Grant Program, executive director of the California Regional Marine Research Program, acting associate director of the Council of Ocean Law, professional staff member with the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, consultant for the Organization of American States, and research fellow at the UN International Maritime Organization.

She has served on advisory boards and committees for federal agencies and nonprofit organizations including the United States-Mexico Foundation for Science, the Pacific Rivers Council, and the Committee on the Bight of the Californias for the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities (CEC/GPA/UNEP), which she co-chaired.  She was appointed by EPA Administrator Whitman in 2003 to serve on the National Advisory Committee (NAC) for the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, which she now chairs.

Her current interests are in international environmental cooperation and capacity building, the application of science to environmental policy, and adaptations to our changing climate.