Bill Hedden served as the executive director of the Grand Canyon Trust from 2003 to 2017. Under his leadership, the Trust helped clean up emissions from the region’s coal-fired power plants and remove radioactive wastes from the bank of the Colorado River. Hedden developed a leading program for reducing grazing damage on public lands, including purchasing two ranches covering 850,000 acres on the Grand Canyon’s north rim. During his tenure, the organization also led in developing ecologically sensible forest restoration programs and partnering with the Hopi and Navajo tribes on sustainable economic development. Hedden has a B.A. and Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University.