ALLISON DEFOOR

PRESIDENT & CEO, NORTH FLORIDA LAND TRUST, JACKSONVILLE

For 26 years, the North Florida Land Trust has acquired interests in land to protect it for the enjoyment of the current generation and their descendants. It has facilitated the transfer of 45,000 acres into conservation and retained 13,000 acres in its region. It has 18 employees, and DeFoor has served as president and CEO for three years. “As co-chair of Amendment 1 in 2016 with former Gov./Sen. Bob Graham, we worked across party lines to a 75% vote statewide, passing in 63 counties,” DeFoor says. “The amendment is a massive funding source for land acquisition and management, producing over $1 billion this year.”

EDUCATION: University of South Florida (BA, MA), Stetson University (JD), South Florida Center for Theological Studies (D.Min.)

FIRST JOB: Selling condos at Bayfront Tower in St. Petersburg to get through law and grad school simultaneously. It was a spasm of over-achieving, but I learned more about how to be a trial lawyer there, perhaps than in law school, (and) how to win over a jury.

SOMETHING SURPRISING: I am a member of the Explorers’ Club in New York City.

INDUSTRY TREND: The greatest threat to conservation in Florida is the rapid and inexorable growth of our state. In two generations, we have grown from smaller than Mississippi to larger than New York. It is now or never to conserve whatever we choose to protect so that those to come can see what Florida really looks like.