Drs. George Wallace and Craig MacFarland are founders of the Center for Protected Area Management at Colorado State University. While working on his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Craig MacFarland was the director of the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Islands. He continued his leadership role in Latin America as the director of the protected areas program at CATIE (a regional natural resources research and education center) in Costa Rica and worked throughout Latin America to promote conservation and the establishment of protected areas. George Wallace, who served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Panama, completed his Ph.D. at Colorado State University and went on to become a full professor in the Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources at CSU, where he is a professor emeritus. Over the years, he inspired and mentored dozens of graduate students, hundreds of undergraduates, and thousands of conservation practitioners to be actively engaged in conservation efforts in the places they live and work.
Dr. MacFarland and Dr. Wallace continue to be active with conservation projects in the United States and Latin America. Their leadership throughout their careers in more than 40 countries has helped position CSU's Center for Protected Area Management as one of the global leaders in training and capacity building for current and future conservation leaders. In order to recognize their leadership and dedication, associates of the Center for Protected Area Management fund an annual scholarship to the Conservation Leadership Through Learning program in their name. The goal is to raise enough contributions to endow the scholarship in Craig and George's name at a minimum of $25,000 to guarantee its perpetuity.