Ian Hanley

Ian is the Executive Director of the New Hampshire State Conservation Committee (SCC). He is the lead author on the Soil & Water brief for the NH Food & Agriculture Strategic Plan.

In his role, he helps facilitate the State's county conservation district system and inter agency soil and water conservation efforts throughout the state. He also helps administer the Conservation License Plate (Moose Plate) Grant Program. His tenure highlights include playing a major role in development of the conservation districts’ Local Work Group programs, which provide opportunity for public input about local resource concerns. He is a steering committee organizer of the New England Leadership Meeting, which brings together conservation district leadership from around the region. He also serves as the northeast region representative for the National Association of State Conservation Agencies’ district relations working group. He has been with the SCC since 2021.

His doctoral work focused on the sociocultural dimensions of environmental stewardship in New Hampshire and its impact on adult educational programs (PhD, Education, University of New Hampshire). He also holds a Master's degree in Environmental Education, and a Bachelor's in Wildlife Ecology.  Ian's previous work includes human-mountain lion conflict mitigation with farmers and ranchers in California's Bay Area, and field work with multiple wildlife research projects throughout New Hampshire. 

Ian serves on Portsmouth’s Trees & Public Greenery Committee. Since 2022, Ian has been a coach with the UNH Women’s+ Rugby Club. He has previously served multiple years as President and Board Chair of the Seacoast Men’s Rugby Club. 

Ian lives on the banks of the Piscataqua River in Portsmouth with his wife and their two Australian cattle dogs. He is originally from southern Maine.