Bruce Levine, member of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) since 1995, has graciously stepped into the interim position of president & CEO while the search begins for TACF’s next leader. Bruce was unanimously voted in by the Board to fill this important role. “I am deeply honored by the confidence the TACF Board of Directors has placed in me. I look forward to working with our outstanding staff to move us forward to restoring the iconic American chestnut to its native range,” he says.
In addition to his decades-long membership at TACF, Bruce has served on the Board of Directors and has been chair of the Chapters and Science & Technology Committees. He also served twice as president of the Maryland Chapter.
Bruce’s professional background involves his role as a diplomat in the US Foreign Service from 1990 to 2016. He served in Taiwan, Singapore, Cambodia, China, and France. It was a hike during one of his Washington assignments, when he discovered chestnut sprouts, that ignited his passion for American chestnut restoration and prompted him to begin volunteering with TACF. Bruce retired from the Foreign Service at the age of 52 to pursue a graduate degree in plant science at the University of Maryland. He obtained his Master’s degree in 2019, and has been working on his PhD since then, developing methods for gene editing in the chestnut blight fungus. This research can help us better understand the host-pathogen relationship behind chestnut blight.
Bruce lives with his wife and two teenage children in Takoma Park, MD. Welcome, Bruce!