Our People

Thomas Minney

Executive Director, West Virginia

Elkins, West Virginia

Thomas Minney standing outside

Areas of Expertise

climate change, renewable energy, economic development, natural resources, partnerships

Media Contact

Erica Byrd
ph. 304-621-6145
Email:

Biography

Thomas Minney serves as the Executive Director of The Nature Conservancy in West Virginia. In this position, he is responsible for working with the West Virginia Business Unit to set and deliver on conservation that benefits nature and the people of West Virginia. Thomas and his team work with various Nature Conservancy business units and partners across the region to set landscape-scale programming and build cross-boundary approaches to ensure effective conservation in the face of large-scale threats like climate change and opportunities such as forest carbon and renewable energy. He is also responsible for linking West Virginia Business Unit work to the Central Appalachians Whole System Program and to the TNC global community.

Minney has served in various roles for The Nature Conservancy prior to his current position, including serving as the Central Appalachians Whole System Program Director and the Conservation Programs Director for The Nature Conservancy in West Virginia. In his role as Conservation Programs Director, he was responsible for leading staff to set conservation priorities, building effective programming and implementing innovative and effective strategies to achieve on-the-ground results to protect West Virginia’s natural resources.  

Minney has worked closely with private landowners, industry, the US Forest Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, WV Division of Natural Resources, researchers and scientists, energy industry partners and others to identify, prioritize, protect and restore the Central Appalachians and West Virginia’s most significant natural assets.

A native of Gilmer County, West Virginia, Minney received his undergraduate degrees in political science and history from Shepherd College. Upon graduation, he spent several years abroad working in Japan. After leaving Japan, he completed a master’s degree in development studies at the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies. Before returning to West Virginia to work for the Nature Conservancy, he served as Director of the New Forests Project in Washington, DC.

Minney resides in Elkins, West Virginia, and enjoys life with his two sons. He enjoys growing a large vegetable garden with his children, keeping up with his Japanese and taking his boys on hunts and hikes in the woods to hand down to them what his father taught him about the natural world.

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