(serving since 2001)

William J. Snape, III (Bill) is Chairman Emeritus, Endangered Species Coalition, Senior Counsel for the Center for Biological Diversity and head swim coach at Gallaudet University. He is also Board Secretary of the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources, a member of the President’s Trade and Environment Policy Committee, and a Vice Chair of the American Bar Association’s Animal Law Committee. From 1994-2004, he was Vice President and Chief Counsel for Defenders of Wildlife, where he directed all domestic and international legal policy, and supervised the organization’s litigation docket. He is editor and author of Biodiversity and the Law, published by Island Press in 1996, and has written many other articles on environmental protection and sustainable development. Snape is a magna cum laude graduate of the Honors College at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received his B.A. in History, and a graduate of the George Washington University Law School, where he was president of the environmental law society. He has taught at several law schools including Georgetown University, American University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Baltimore, where he served as an advisor for the school’s environmental law journal while an adjunct professor.