Will Travis

Will Travis is a consultant on sea level rise adaptation planning and a popular public speaker. He has an undergraduate degree in architecture and a graduate degree in regional planning, both from Penn State University.

His professional career includes over four decades of pioneering work at California’s two state coastal management agencies––the California Coastal Commission and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC). He was the executive director of BCDC for 17 years until his retirement in 2011. Under his leadership BCDC became the nation’s first state coastal management agency to adopt development regulations for addressing sea level rise.

Travis has lectured at universities throughout North America, written extensively on planning and resource management issues, and served on the boards of numerous professional and civic organizations, including the Berkeley planning commission. He was the chairman of special citizens’ committee that worked with the University of California to formulate an award-winning plan for downtown Berkeley.

In the late 1990s Travis spearheaded the public acquisition of 10,000 acres of privately-owned salt ponds along the northern shoreline of San Francisco Bay. The property is now being converted to natural habitat as part of the largest wetland restoration project in the western United States.

Travis is the only person who has received both a Jean Auer Environmental Award from San Francisco Estuary Partnership and a Frank C. Boerger Award from the Bay Planning Coalition.

He and his wife, Jody Loeffler, are the authors of Katherine’s Gift, a memoir of international adoption. They live in Berkeley, California.