Julie Shackelford

Texas State Director, Conservation Acquisition

Julie Shackelford, The Conservation Fund’s Texas Director, has been with the Fund since 2004. She has focused on protecting, through acquisition and conservation easements, some of Texas’ most iconic landscapes. Since 2004, Julie has raised over $100 million from public and private sources to permanently conserve over 100,000 acres of land. Her work targets regions including the Big Thicket National Preserve and the Neches River, the Upper Texas coast at McFaddin and Anahuac National Wildlife Refuges, the Rio Grande Valley at Laguna Atascosa NWR, and state lands including Village Creek SP, Powderhorn Ranch and the JD Murphree Wildlife Management Area.

In East Texas, she established the first designated Paddling Trail along the Neches River through the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s program. She has worked with Angelina County to highlight and promote the county’s natural assets through the development of hiking and biking trail maps. She was a recipient of the 2020 Terry Hershey Award for Texas Women in Conservation. Julie holds a Master of Environmental Management degree from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and a B.A. in Biology from Carleton College in Minnesota. She lives in Nacogdoches with her husband Cliff and two children.

Contact: julieshackelford@conservationfund.org   Phone: 936-468-5490   Office: Texas