Paul Relis and Frank Davis Join Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Board of Directors

Paul Relis and Frank Davis Join Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Board of Directors

originally posted in Noozhawk October 30, 2015

The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is proud to announce Paul Relis and Frank Davis as new board members.

Recognized as an “Environmental Frontiersman” by the Santa Barbara Independent in 1990, Paul Relis has many years of experience tackling critical environmental issues such as recycling, green building and hazardous waste management.

Relis serves on the American Biogas Council board of directors, the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s Natural Gas Vehicle Partnership and the Bioenergy Association of California.

Currently, he continues to advance the bioenergy industry in California by serving as advisor to the CEO of CR&R, one of the nation’s largest privately held waste management firms that attends to some 60 cities and 3 million customers in Southern California.

Relis, his wife Kathy, and their three children, enjoy a home just a few blocks from the Museum of Natural History where they have lived since 1976.

Frank Davis is the director of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, executive director of the National Communications Office of the National Science Foundation’s Long Term Ecological Research Network and professor of landscape ecology and conservation planning at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara.

He founded and led the UCSB Biogeography Lab for 24 years, where research focuses on the ecology and conservation of California species and ecosystems.

An Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Davis received his Ph.D. in geography and environmental engineering from The Johns Hopkins University and his bachelor’s in biology from Williams College.

Davis serves as a trustee of The Nature Conservancy of California, a board member of Tejon Ranch Conservancy and as vice president for public affairs for the Ecological Society of America.

The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is one of the oldest and most important institutions on the West Coast. To both sustain and protect its scientific and educational relevance and maintain its position in the hearts and minds of the community well into the future, the museum celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2016.