William Shutkin, President and CEO, Orton Family Foundation

Website: www.orton.org

His Biography

A leading voice for civic innovation and sustainable development in the United States, Bill became the Foundation’s President and CEO in 2004 after twelve years in the Boston area where he co-founded and led two non-profit environmental organizations, Alternatives for Community & Environment and New Ecology, Inc.  From 1998-2004, Bill taught environmental law and policy in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, where he is currently a Research Affiliate, and was an Adjunct Professor of Law at Boston College Law School from 1993-2003.  He is the author of the award-winning book, The Land That Could Be: Environmentalism and Democracy in the Twenty-First Century. 

Bill is a commentator for Vermont Public Radio and the web magazine TomPaine.com, a contributing writer for Northern Woodlands magazine and a published poet.  He earned an AB in History and Classics from Brown University and an MA in History and JD from the University of Virginia.  He also completed doctoral studies in Jurisprudence and Social Policy as a Regents Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley.  Bill was a law clerk to Chief Judge Franklin S. Billings, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, has received numerous public service awards and fellowships and is a trustee of several non-profit organizations, including the Echoing Green Foundation and the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities.   He served as Steering Committee Vice-Chair for the 1998 Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign of Scott Harshbarger, was the chief environmental policy advisor to 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Warren Tolman, the state’s first-ever clean elections candidate, was a policy advisor to 2004 U.S. presidential candidate Howard Dean and is currently a policy advisor to 2006 Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick. 

Bill lives in Peru, VT with his wife and two children.

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