Your Columbians
Marc A. Matsil

Marc A. Matsil (1956– )
Ecologist
Columbia College 1978
Journalism 1978–79

Marc A. Matsil fits the quintessential definition of dedication in government: an entrepreneurial government visionary who has raised more than 300 million dollars in grant monies for ecological restoration and environmental good. He's been assistant commissioner for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, chief of New York City's prestigious Natural Resources Group (15 years), and field biologist with the National Park Service (including five years in Alaska). Matsil has been recognized as a visionary—and compared to Aldo Leopold for his groundbreaking work in ecological restoration—by the Society for Ecological Restoration International (as its first Theodore Sperry International Award recipient). He has won the Chevron Times Mirror North America Conservation Prize and the U.S. EPA/Environmental Law Institute's National Wetlands Award (among others) for developing strategies for bioremediation of contaminated wetlands. Matsil's generosity and willingness to do ecological good in underserved communities is legendary.

Submitted by Weld Royal, Graduate School of Journalism 1991, who is solely responsible for the content.

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