Richard Dale has nearly 30 years of experience in environmental policy and nonprofit management. He co-founded the Sonoma Ecology Center in 1990 and has been its director since 1992. In his tenure, the Sonoma Ecology Center has developed into a locally driven, regionally respected agency working through extensive partnerships to conduct technical research, education, and restoration to sustain and enhance ecological health at the watershed scale.

Richard worked in a national grassroots effort resulting in passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and lectured extensively to preserve the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He was awarded the John Muir Conservation Award in 1997.