Charles Gauvin has a lifelong commitment to environmental protection and conservation. He has honored and expressed that commitment in numerous ways.
Clean Water Activist — Charles was raised on the shores of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay, where he learned the importance of water quality and acquired strong environmental values. After graduating from Brown in 1978 and seeing a sharp decline in the bay’s water quality, he volunteered with a fledgling group called Save the Bay and persuaded its board of directors to initiate a citizens’ suit under the Clean Water Act against the City of Providence over its wastewater discharges. That action led to hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds being devoted to the clean-up of the bay and was a major step in the bay’s recovery. From 1980 to 1982, before attending law school at the University of Pennsylvania, he ran the Section 208 water quality program at the Rhode Island state planning office and served as an instructor in Brown’s environmental studies program.
Environmental Lawyer — After graduating from law school, Charles joined the Washington, DC law firm of Beveridge & Diamond, where he practiced environmental and corporate law. His work involved a broad range of the federal environmental laws and a variety of litigated and negotiated matters. While at Beveridge & Diamond, he did pro bono work for Virginia’s Piedmont Environmental Council and for the national fish and river conservation group Trout Unlimited.
Conservation Leader — In 1991, Charles’ work as a pro bono lawyer for Trout Unlimited led to a rare leadership opportunity, when TU’s board hired him as the organization’s CEO. Over the next 18 years, under his leadership, TU grew from 50,000 members and a $2.5 million annual budget to over 140,000 members and a $30 million annual budget. To attain its vision of restoring North America’s native and wild coldwater fish across their North American range, TU launched a number of critical initiatives addressing water policy, public lands management, and habitat restoration. Beginning in the mid-1990s, Charles worked closely with Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and large landowners to document and protect native brook trout populations. In 2000, he led a successful effort to obtain a federal endangered listing for Maine’s Atlantic salmon, a development which, over the following decades, changed the face of river conservation in Maine.
From 2014 to 2016, Charles served as Maine Audubon’s executive director and helped that organization define its strategic role and improve its financial position. He recently returned to Maine full-time to devote himself to conservation projects.
Strategist and Fund-Raiser — As chief development officer at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Charles built an entire philanthropy program from the ground up and worked with key government and private sector leaders in South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. At Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, he focused on increasing unrestricted support and collaborated on initiatives to unlock the secrets of coral reefs, the ocean’s microbiome, and the ocean worlds of Saturn’s and Jupiter’s moons.
Teacher — Charles has taught in Colby College’s environmental studies program and lectured elsewhere on land conservation and forest management policy. He has also counseled students on launching an environmental career. In 2020, he led two graduate students in Yale’s School of the Environment in a semester-long research project investigating land conservation opportunities in the Western Maine Mountains.
Consultant — Charles has worked as a leadership, strategy, and development consultant for a number of organizations in both conservation and education. He also has advised donors on conservation investments in Maine and elsewhere.
Charles and his wife, the painter Gina Sawin, live on an historic farm in New Gloucester, Maine.