Author: Allison Dodson

Lidia Soto-Harmon serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Student Conservation Association (SCA), the largest provider of hands-on environmental conservation programs for youth and adults in the nation. Last year, the SCA engaged more than 2,000 youth and young adults in hands-on environmental conservation programs who collectively provided nearly 1 million hours of service at federal, state, and local parks and natural areas. SCA participants increase the nation’s climate resiliency, reduce wildfire risks, enhance equity and environmental justice, strengthen urban communities, implement historic preservation initiatives and retire backlogged maintenance projects.

Prior to joining the SCA, Soto-Harmon was the CEO of the Girl Scouts of the Nation’s Capital, the largest council in the country for 13 years, serving over 76,000 members in the Greater Washington region. During her almost 19-year tenure at the Girl Scouts, she also served as Chief Operating Officer for six years. She was directly responsible for building a compelling strategy to successfully expand access for girls across the region, transforming programs, creating experiences in the outdoors, and engaging communities to support and expand youth development. 

Before joining the Girl Scouts, Soto-Harmon served as Senior Vice President of Community Development for First Book, a national children’s literacy organization dedicated to getting new books into the hands of children from low-income families. She also previously served as Deputy Director of the President’s Interagency Council on Women at the U.S. Department of State and Senior Director for the Fannie Mae Foundation’s Targeted Outreach Department. She served as Chair and Trustee of Migration Policy Institute, Executive Committee member for the Booz Allen Foundation, Board Member for First Book – a national Children’s literacy organization, Chair of the Advisory Council for the master’s in public administration at the Schar School of Public Policy and Government and is an Adjunct Faculty member at George Mason University.

Each year, Soto-Harmon takes on a personal “summer challenge” to embody the SCA’s mission. In 2023, she traveled across Alaska to meet SCA participants, learning to cold-start a chainsaw and visiting programs from Denali National Park to Kenai Fjords. In 2024, she climbed her first mountain with an SCA Bronx crew at Acadia National Park, hauling 209 pounds of soil to the summit of Sargent Mountain to combat erosion—a true “Soil to Summit” expedition. Most recently, in 2025, she joined SCA staff and partners for a resupply run in Yosemite National Park, hiking more than 12.5 miles and hauling 170 pounds of supplies to support members working in the backcountry with the National Park Service’s Vegetation and Ecological Restoration Team.

Soto-Harmon holds a master’s in public administration from George Mason University and has participated in various Executive Leadership Programs at Harvard, Stanford and the Center for Creative Leadership. She has a bachelor’s in arts from George Mason University. She is also a member of the International Women’s Forum, the Washington Business Journal Women Who Mean Business, and Leadership Greater Washington Class of 2007. Soto-Harmon is married and has two fantastic bilingual adult children.

Emily Bohr holds a degree in Environmental and Sustainability Studies from George Mason University and attended the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation (Class of 2021).  Since 2022, she has served as outreach specialist for Fairfax County’s Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination, connecting the Fairfax community with ways to take climate action through creative digital storytelling and community events and making local environmental issues real and relatable for residents of all ages and abilities. She resides in Arlington where she enjoys crocheting and birdwatching. 

Ashley Fortner is an elephant keeper at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, where she works with Asian elephants and contributes to conservation-focused animal care and research. A 2017 graduate of George Mason University and alumna of the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation, Ashley has helped mentor students, support behavioral research projects, and care for the Zoo’s elephant herd, including the Smithsonian’s first elephant calf born in nearly 25 years. Her work focuses on conservation, animal welfare, and inspiring the next generation of environmental leaders

Jordan Eccles is a Presidential Innovation Fellow working with the Executive Office of the President – Council on Environmental Quality as Deputy Director for Innovation.  In this role, Dr. Eccles brings best practices in digital strategy, AI and data analytics, and mission-driven outcomes to infrastructure planning and build-out.  He is a technology and data science professional with over a decade of experience working to transform processes and tools in the Department of Defense, most recently working with the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Operational Energy to develop approaches for maximizing combat capability by optimizing fuel use. In this role, he pioneered a software and productivity approach to fuel logistics, delivering programs saving tens of millions of dollars in fuel costs wasted on non-mission inefficiencies. Dr. Eccles previously supported the Air Force Encroachment Management and Community Partnership programs, preventing impacts to mission operations at over forty installations. Prior to working with the Air Force, he helped found a startup working in credit card security and served as its Chief Technology Officer and worked as a postdoctoral associate and adjunct professor at Duke University, researching topics in the energy and environment space. Dr. Eccles also served as a Surface Warfare Officer in the US Navy and a high school science and math teacher in Raleigh, NC.