Georgia Wildlife Federation president wins national award
Special Photo: Brian Walker
From staff reports
COVINGTON — Mike Worley, the president and CEO of Georgia Wildlife Federation, was awarded the Charlie Shaw Affiliate Partnership Award by the National Wildlife Federation at the recent annual meeting in Lake Tahoe. Selected by NWF staff, Worley was recognized as the state-level leader that best typifies the partnership between NWF and its state affiliates.
State affiliates are completely independent organizations with their own governing board and funding. However, the affiliate structure gives each state-level organization voting rights to help guide NWF policies. These policies and initiatives are where the affiliate partnership shines and where Worley’s contributions are most clearly demonstrated.
As chair of NWF’s Conservation Funding Working Group, Worley’s efforts with the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act and conservation provisions of the Farm Bill have proven invaluable in both rallying support from Georgia’s elected leaders and the public, but also in engaging other affiliate leaders across the U.S.
“Mike has been a stalwart leader of our shared NWF-affiliate campaign to pass the Recovering America’s Wildlife Bill,” NWF President and CEO Collin O’Mara said. “He’s frequently taken a lead encouraging affiliate counterparts to ramp up their advocacy efforts and pressure passage of this priceless bill. He’s an incredible asset to the federation lobbying staff, offering assistance based on his own decadeslong experience navigating the legislative process in Southern politics.”
Ron Warnken is NWF’s director of conservation partnerships over the region including Georgia and has been an integral player in identifying partnership opportunities between GWF and NWF.
“The entire time that he (Mike) has been at GWF, he’s been a leader in the federation ranks,” Warnken said. “He’s made y’all (GWF) proud — has made me proud. We’re appreciative of everything he has done.”
At the same Lake Tahoe meeting, GWF’s current board chair, Mark Berry, was elected to serve on the NWF board. Berry will represent Region 4 for a three-year term.
Since their inception in 1936, both NWF and GWF have left an indelible mark on the conservation movement in Georgia and the U.S.
“We’ve done some tremendous things together, and we have lots of work to do for the future,” Worley said.
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