Kevin Preister is Executive Director of the Center for Social Ecology and Public Policy, a non-profit organization dedicated to the concept of productive harmony between the human and physical environments. For 25 years, Dr. Preister has been engaged in change projects-recreation, water, oil and gas, urban re-development, welfare reform, agriculture, and natural resource management. Central to his experience has been the understanding of the natural systems within human communities that are place-based, geographically-centered, and are responsible for caretaking, survival, and cultural beliefs, traditions, and practices. Once the change agent is operating with the natural community systems, new opportunities emerge for integrating the interests of formal organizations with community interests.

Dr. Preister has applied this understanding in a variety of settings, from small communities and businesses to large regional communities and multi-national businesses. In the arena of natural resource management, Dr. Preister and his colleagues within the field of Social Ecology have influenced national policy related to land use planning and community-based management approaches. He has been involved in well over 50 communities as an instructor for BLM's National Training Center. Several federal offices have made direct use of the JKA human geographic mapping systems to reorder their relationships with local communities. Project troubleshooting has involved oil and gas leasing, recreation development, forest and watershed management and more.

Dr. Preister also has focused on human service delivery and poverty reduction, working on one of the first welfare reform projects in the State of Oregon in West Medford, as well as projects involving homelessness and urban redevelopment.