NJ Audubon is pleased to announce that Alex Ireland, Ph.D. will be joining the team on September 30, 2021 as Vice President of Stewardship.

Alex comes to NJ Audubon from ExxonMobil Biomedical Sciences, Inc. (EMBSI), where he served in a variety of roles, most recently leading a global team of environmental scientists. Throughout his time at EMBSI, he engaged in site reclamation, land management, and voluntary conservation projects in the US. He synthesized on-the-ground learnings into co-authored peer-reviewed publications presenting a new model for integrating reclamation planning into site remediation and illustrating the potential cumulative benefits of voluntary corporate conservation initiatives. Alex led wide-ranging research and development projects, collaboratively designing, and publishing innovative approaches to environmental monitoring using GIS and remote sensing technologies to improve environmental performance and meet regulatory requirements. Prior to leading the environmental sciences section, Alex also managed affiliate-level planning and budgeting, a role focused on identifying, quantifying, and driving business process improvements.

Alex Ireland

Previously, Alex was a Research Scientist at the Pennsylvania State University where he developed a method for spatially modeling ecological potential of forested land across the Commonwealth, with practical implications for site management. This role built upon his dissertation research aimed at understanding the climatic and human drivers of community and structural change in peat-forming wetlands over the Holocene. Alex holds a Ph.D. in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Lehigh University, a B.S. in Biology from Clarion University of Pennsylvania, and is a US Army Veteran.  His peer-reviewed publications have appeared in numerous scholarly journals including Ecology, Wetlands, The Wildlife Society Bulletin, and Ecological Reclamation.  Dr. Ireland brings over 10 years of experience with increasing scope of leadership and responsibility as well as a deep passion ecological enhancement of sites and landscapes.

"We are pleased to announce the hiring of Alex Ireland, Ph.D. as NJ Audubon’s Vice President of Stewardship. Alex brings extensive leadership in advancing environmental policy founded on forestry health practices which is a core value of NJ Audubon. While as a Research Scientist at Pennsylvania State University Alex developed a method for spatially modeling ecological potential of forested lands with practical implications for site management.” Eric Stiles, President and CEO, New Jersey Audubon