John Horning was born and raised in Washington, DC and grew up on a street that bordered Rock Creek Park, one of the wildest urban parks in our country, where he cultivated an appreciation for the solace of wild spaces. He fondly recalls a childhood searching for salamanders, hearing Pileated wood peckers and watching fire flies light up summer evenings. Mr. Horning graduated in1989 from Colorado College, where he not only played football for four years (becoming the offense’s MVP his senior year) but also first developed a life-long appreciation for Wallace Stegner, the writer and the man. After biking around the country and then working for a variety of environmental education and advocacy groups he moved to New Mexico in 1994 to join the staff of what would later become WildEarth Guardians. He feels privileged to be a voice for the voiceless.