Jesús Franco

Jesús graduated from Antonio Narro Agricultural University in Saltillo, Mexico before completing his MSc. in Range and Wildlife Management at Texas A&M University–Kingsville. He has more than 25 years of experience in priority species and habitat conservation, community outreach, and building partnerships with government agencies, NGOs, academia, and private landowners in both the United States and Mexico. His career includes studying the effects of grazing and browsing herbivores on the uplands of eastern Oregon and conducting forest productivity research at Louisiana State University (Geaux Tigers!). Back in Texas, he spent 13 years with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, serving as the binational liaison between the agency and the then-emerging wildlife agencies of the Mexican border states. He established the successful Texas Master Naturalist program in South Texas and conducted management, monitoring, and outreach efforts for game and non-game species, including deer, quail, dove, butterflies, non-game birds, and bats. In his current position with ABC, Jesús focuses on applying the Migratory Bird Joint Venture’s Strategic Habitat Conservation framework—an iterative, science-driven, adaptive management approach—to guide conservation planning, implementation, and evaluation efforts that help advance the goals and objectives of regional, national, and international bird conservation initiatives within the geographic scope of the Rio Grande Joint Venture. Jesús is also an undercover agent working on a secret mission to change his employer’s name from American Bird Conservancy to American Bat Conservancy.