James Levitt

Background

About James Levitt

Jim Levitt is the Director of the International Land Conservation Network at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and a Fellow at the Harvard Forest, Harvard University. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Highstead Foundation. The ILCN is focused on advancing civic private and civic (non-profit/NGO) land conservation around the world. As a co-founder and Director of the Network, Levitt has the opportunity to work with leading conservationists on six continents. He is the editor of four books on conservation policy and practice: Conservation in the Internet Age: Threats and Opportunities (Island Press, 2002), From Walden to Wall Street: Frontiers of Conservation Finance (Island Press and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2005), Conservation Capital in the Americas: Exemplary Conservation Finance Initiatives (Lincoln Institute, in collaboration with the Ash Center at the Harvard Kennedy School, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University and Island Press, 2010), and Conservation Catalysts: The Academy as Nature’s Agent (Lincoln Institute, 2014). A graduate of Yale College and the Yale School of Management, Levitt has more than three decades of experience as a consultant and advisor to large public, private and non-profit organizations. In 2008 he was named by the Yale School of Management as a Donaldson Fellow, an honor given to alumni for career achievements that "exemplify the mission of the School."​ He was also awarded the medallion of Chile's Chamber of Deputies in recognition of his work to advance land conservation in that nation. Jim Levitt, his wife Jane, and their three children love to spend time on the shores of Little Tunk Pond in Sullivan, Maine, and in the surrounding conserved forest land.