Ernie Atencio

Ernie Atencio is a cultural anthropologist, conservationist, and writer with deep Indo-Hispano roots in northern New Mexico. He previously spent nine years as executive director of the Taos Land Trust, where he developed innovative community partnerships, permanently protected thousands of acres of land, and returned a sacred site to the legal ownership of the Taos Pueblo Tribe. Ernie has also been executive director of a national association of cabin owners, coordinated the Valles Caldera Coalition, worked with a number of other conservation organizations, and is currently the Southwest Regional Director for National Parks Conservation Association. Growing up in inner-city Denver, he discovered the larger world—and the land—through an Outward Bound “hoods-in-the-woods” program and has worked throughout the West ever since as a wilderness instructor, national park ranger, environmental educator, and journalist.