The Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness has chosen prominent Minneapolis journalist Ron Meador as its new executive director, Carolyn Sampson, Board Chair, announced today.

“We are delighted that Ron will be leading the Friends,” said Sampson. “Over recent years, he has written about nearly every major wilderness and environmental issue in Minnesota and beyond. He knows the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, he knows the issues that confront it and he knows the players who will shape its future. His commitment to wild places is absolutely unmatched.”

Sampson said Meador will assume his duties on June 1.

“I am honored beyond words to be entrusted with this responsibility,” said Meador. “At the same time, I am humbled because the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is so important to me personally and because its health and future matter so much to all of us. The Friends is an organization I have admired throughout my time in Minnesota. So many people who have been and remain part of this organization have been enormously helpful to me over my years of learning about these issues. I look forward eagerly to working with them in this new role.”

Meador recently stepped down as an editorial writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune after nearly 12 years in which he wrote something in the range of 1200 editorials, with special focus on environmental and science matters. He also wrote commentaries on issues of particular interest to him, among them the long decline in Minnesota’s water-quality and the long-past-due protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska which he visited several years ago.

Meador joined the Star Tribune in 1980. Before moving to the editorial board, he served as an assistant managing editor, leading teams in the production of several dozen of the paper’s top investigative and interpretive projects. He earlier worked as a copy editor for the New York Times and for the Louisville, KY, Courier Journal.

The Wilderness Society, a national conservation organization, presented Meador its Aldo Leopold Award in 2000 for his consistently outstanding environmental editorials. He received the Page One Award for editorials from the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists in 2002 for an editorial about issues facing Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota. In 2006 he won the Frank Premack Public Affairs Journalism Award in recognition of an editorial criticizing the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s lax regulation of mercury.

“Because we are in Sig Olson and Aldo Leopold country, fine environmental writing has long been an important element in the Friends’ work and a major part of our tradition,” said Sampson. “It will continue under Ron. His ability to analyze and synthesize the complex issues that face the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and his extensive and varied management experience all equip him to lead the Friends into its fourth decade of service.”

Meador earned his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University at Bloomington with a dual major in journalism and sociology in 1975. He was awarded a Ted Scripps Fellowship in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 2001-2002. And between 1998 and 2003 he had four fellowships with the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources to study environmental issues in various regions of the country, including the Great Lakes.

He is an avid paddler and outdoorsman. He lives in Minneapolis and has a grown son, Ben, who also lives and works in the city.

The professional search that led to Meador’s selection attracted a remarkable number of highly-qualified applicants from across the nation, Sampson said. Cathy Jacobson, who has served as interim executive director for the past several months, will continue in that role until Meador takes up his post.

Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, based in Minneapolis, MN, is a non-profit organization founded in 1976. Its mission is to protect, preserve and restore the wilderness character of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the Quetico-Superior ecosystem. Friends has nearly 4,000 members and subscribers nationwide.

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