Audubon Welcomes Karen Hyun and Justin Stokes to Policy Team

NEW YORK – Today, the National Audubon Society announced the appointment of Karen Hyun as Director of Water and Coastal Policy and Justin Stokes as Director of Legislative Affairs, two key additions to the century-old conservation organization as it expands its reach and effectiveness throughout the Americas. Hyun and Stokes join Audubon’s policy team, led by Sarah Greenberger who recently joined Audubon as Vice President for Conservation. Greenberger joined Audubon from the U.S. Department of the Interior, where she spent five years driving strategy and policy for the agency as a counselor and senior advisor to Interior Secretaries Ken Salazar and Sally Jewell.

“The experience that Karen and Justin bring to our policy team will immediately contribute to Audubon's tradition of being a pragmatic  and solution-oriented partner in the policy-making room,” says David O’Neill, Chief Conservation Officer and Senior Advisor to the CEO at Audubon. “Their talents and passion will help Audubon achieve  substantial  on-the-ground conservation results that protect the places birds and people need, today and tomorrow.”

Karen Hyun

As Director of Water and Coastal Policy, Hyun will lead Audubon’s efforts to advance policies at the federal and state levels in support of Audubon’s Water and Coasts conservation strategies.  Karen comes to Audubon after working on important conservation issues across the Executive Branch, most recently as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks at the Department of the Interior.  In that role she helped ensure a successful centennial celebration for the National Park Service, increase youth engagement in the outdoors, and implement new landscape-scale approaches to conservation. She has also served in several leadership positions at the Department of Commerce and as professional staff to the House Natural Resources Committee where she focused on fisheries management and endangered species protection.

 Justin Stokes

As Director of Legislative Affairs, Stokes will lead Audubon’s legislative efforts, deepening the organization’s influence and ability to achieve policy outcomes that protect birds and the places they need.  Stokes comes to Audubon after serving in key leadership and communications roles on Capitol Hill, most recently as Chief of Staff to Representative Richard Hanna (R-NY).  Stokes has managed several congressional campaigns and served as political director for a gubernatorial candidate in his native South Carolina.   

About Audubon

With total revenues in 2016 of $102.6 million (25% increase since 2010), Audubon is one of the nation’s largest conservation organizations, comprising 23 state offices, 41 nature centers and 23 wildlife sanctuaries and representing 463 local chapters. Audubon – which focuses on the protection of birds and the places they need throughout the Americas – has been transformed in recent years, according to Crain’s New York Business, through cutting edge technologies, a sharpened conservation focus and operational overhaul that has increased revenue and decreased overhead expenses.

As written in The Chronicle of Philanthropy and GreenBiz, that strategic and operational transformation has attracted new funders and broadened the organization’s reach to younger and more diverse audiences as Audubon expands its international work and achieves conservation victories. For the first time in nearly two decades, Audubon has also earned Charity Navigator's highest ranking of four stars, twice in a row.

Audubon’s main Facebook page has more than 1,011,000 followers and reaches approximately 4.1 million people each week as the organization’s supporters share and interact with Audubon’s posts. And the organization’s 2014 birds and climate change campaign, which earned more than two billion media impressions, recently won a Diamond SABRE award from public relations industry leaders.

To learn more about Audubon and its new strategic direction, please visit here.

The National Audubon Society protects birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow, throughout the Americas using science, advocacy, education and on-the-ground conservation. Audubon’s state programs, nature centers, chapters and partners have an unparalleled wingspan that reaches millions of people each year to inform, inspire and unite diverse communities in conservation action. Since 1905, Audubon’s vision has been a world in which people and wildlife thrive. Audubon is a nonprofit conservation organization. Learn more at www.audubon.org and @audubonsociety.

###

Contact: media@audubon.org, 212-979-3100