Daniel Katz (environmental activist)
Encyclopedia
Daniel Katz is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 environmentalist
Environmentalist
An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...

 writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

, speaker and activist. He is currently the Senior Program Director at The Overbrook Foundation, where he leads environmental giving in the areas of biodiversity conservation, sustainability and climate change.

Katz was instrumental in initiating the rainforest conservation movement when he co-founded the Rainforest Alliance
Rainforest Alliance
The Rainforest Alliance is a non-governmental organization with the published aims of working to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior. It is based in New York City, and has offices throughout the...

 in 1986 at the age of 24. The Rainforest Alliance is a non-governmental organization
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...

 that focuses on environmental conservation throughout the world. Under Katz’s leadership, the Rainforest Alliance became the first nonprofit organization to create a global program to monitor, evaluate, certify and audit forests. The Rainforest Alliance is best known for creating independent third-party certification in forestry, agriculture and tourism. Initially he was the Executive Director of the Rainforest Alliance; today he serves as the Chairman of the Rainforest Alliance board.

He has campaigned against the wastefulness of mail-order catalogs, of which the average household receives about 114 a year. As a result of his role in starting up the Internet conservation website CatalogChoice.org, Katz has been described by PBS's Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...

 as the “Dr. Phil of catalog clutter” and “the maven of the overstuffed mailbox.”

Katz was raised in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

. He earned his M.B.A. at the Stern School of Business, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 and a B.A. from Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...

. A former Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Fellow, Katz currently serves on the boards of several organizations including Grist, People for the American Way
People For the American Way
People For the American Way is a progressive advocacy group in the United States. Under U.S. tax code, People For the American Way is organized as a tax-exempt 501 non-profit organization.-Purpose:...

, the Gibson Guitar Foundation and others. He is the editor of two books: Why Freedom Matters: The Spirit of the Declaration of Independence in Prose, Poetry and Song (2003, Workman) and Tales from the Jungle: A Rainforest Reader (1995, Crown). Katz resides in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

with his wife and two children.

He was honored with the Ohio State University Department of Humanities Alumni Award of Distinction.

External links

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