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Katie Distler Eckman Biography

Katie Distler Eckman is a seasoned conservationist with significant experience in the nonprofit and foundation communities. Most recently, she served as executive director of the Turner Foundation, a private family foundation created by Ted Turner and dedicated to environmental protection. As executive director, Katie was responsible for the overall day-to-day operations of the foundation. In this role, she guided all program activity, including the development of strategic funding agendas to enhance the overall foundation mission. She developed and oversaw the grants and administrative budgets and managed the entire foundation staff. Katie began her eight and a half year tenure with the foundation as the Habitat Program Officer where she was responsible for a multi-million dollar funding portfolio of national and international environmental programs and projects, including marine conservation, wildlife and fisheries conservation, public and private land protection and sustainable forestry. Before assuming the role of executive director, she led the program team and the entire grantmaking portfolio as director of programs.

Before joining Turner, Katie worked for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, initially as coordinator of its domestic and international Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Initiative and subsequently as the assistant director of its Southeastern Region, where she oversaw programmatic and financial management of the $35 million southeastern conservation grant portfolio. Katie previously worked in the field as a wildlife biologist for the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, and lived and worked on St. Catherine’s Island, GA at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Wildlife Survival Center, a captive breeding ground for endangered species. In addition, sea turtle conservation positions have taken her from the coasts of North Carolina and Georgia to remote islands in the Caribbean.

Katie received her Bachelors of Science in Forest Resources, with a concentration in wildlife biology, from the University of Georgia. She recently relocated to Winston-Salem, NC with her husband, Scott, their two young children, Hunter and Margaret, and their two Labrador retrievers. She is now engaged in limited consulting for foundations and nonprofits. Katie is an avid outdoors woman, with a passion for fly fishing and travel.