Amaris Alanis-Ribeiro

Amaris is an environmental changemaker, having worked with nonprofits, government, informal science centers, and the outdoors in urban and national landscapes. She has 20 years of experience in conservation, environmental education, and STEM. As Center Director of the Trinity River Audubon Center (TRAC), Amaris leads the Center’s mission, strategy, and operations to advance urban conservation, education, and community engagement in the Dallas region. She oversees programmatic excellence, financial sustainability, and site management, while contributing to statewide conservation leadership as part of the Audubon Texas senior management team.

Amaris joins Audubon from the Hispanic Access Foundation, where she served as Director of Forestry and led a $25 million federal urban forestry grant initiative. In that role, she collaborated with municipalities and nonprofits across the U.S. and Puerto Rico to strengthen climate resilience and compliance with federal regulations through nearly 40 subawards. Previously, she directed the North Park Village Nature Center in partnership with the City of Chicago's Park District— welcoming over 75,000 visitors annually. There, she secured new funding streams, directed the site’s conservation easement approval to perpetuity, oversaw capital improvements, and deepened community access to nature.
Fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, Amaris has been recognized with awards such as the Wildlife Society Diversity Award (2024) and the Chicago Wilderness Force of Nature Award (2017). Amaris has a bachelor's in science degree in Ecology, Ethology, Evolution from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and is completing a master's degree in science education. She is naturalist and educator at heart and is excited to lead TRAC into its next chapter, strengthening its role in Dallas’s greenspace initiatives, habitat conservation, climate action, and community building in alignment with Audubon’s Flight Plan.