Valerie Clark
Executive Director
Valerie Gordon is the Executive Director of Cuenca Los Ojos, with a career in Western conservation that began at The Nature Conservancy in the Central Valley of California. She was a founding board member of Cuenca Los Ojos and transitioned into the Executive Director role in 2024.
Her work centers on large-landscape connectivity and habitat health including freshwater systems and the buffer zones of working landscapes, keeping habitats whole and functional alongside human use rather than separate from it. At Cuenca, building on that experience with working-landscape transition zones, Valerie is now focused on rewilding core species, with a particular interest in restoring grasslands and reintroducing native herbivores to the Northern Mexican landscapes.
Valerie serves on the boards of several conservation organizations, including the Land Trust Alliance. Outside of work, Valerie can usually be found running the hills and valleys of Cuenca or her ranch on the east side of the Sierra Nevada, with a gaggle of dogs close behind.
Photo by Jorge Chacon
