John H. Adams

Natural Resources Defense Council

John Adams is the Founding Director and former President of the Natural Resources Defense Council.  He co-founded the NRDC in 1970, a non-profit organization of public interest lawyers focused on the formation and enforcement of emerging environmental laws.  Since then, NRDC has become a national and international force, with more than 1.2 million members and online activists nationwide. 

John has a B.A. in History from Michigan State, an L.L.B. from Duke University Law School and an honorary doctor of laws from Duke University. 

Prior to NRDC, John worked as the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.  John serves as Chairman of the Board of the Open Space Institute.  He is also on the boards of the League of Conservation Voters, Center for American Progress, Woods Hole Research Center and Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.  John has also served on the Pew Oceans Commission, the President’s Council on Sustainable Development and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Common Sense Initiative. 

Throughout John’s career, he has been recognized by a number of organizations for his work and has received several honors, including the Wilderness Society’s Robert Marshall Award; the Judge Lumbard Cup for public service from the United States Attorney’s Southern District of New York; the Frances K. Hutchinson Conservation Award from the Garden Club of America; Duke University’s Distinguished Alumni Award and Duke University Law School’s Charles J. Murphy Award.   

John lives in upstate New York with his wife Patricia.  They and their three grown children and four grandchildren enjoy spending time at their home in the Catskills on the Beaverkill River.