InterviewBlog | Simon Stuart A working life that melds science, conservation and faith
Simon Stuart A working life that melds science, conservation and faith
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 13.03.21
Dr Simon Stuart Award-winning conservation researcher Dr Simon Stuart was recently appointed Executive Director of A Rocha International. Simon is known to many in Cambridge from his PhD under Keith Eltringham, his work with BirdLife (then ICBP), the IUCN Redlist, the KBA partnership and Synchronicity Earth, besides numerous other connections. A Rocha, the world’s leading Christian conservation charity, was founded by Peter and Miranda Harris in 1983, and exists to equip churches and communities to care for the planet. Tragically, in November 2019 a road accident in South Africa led to the death of Miranda Harris, along with A Rocha International Executive Director Chris Naylor and his wife Susanna. Peter Harris survived.
Your new role comes as a bittersweet appointment in the wake of the tragic death of Miranda, Chris and Susanna. How has the A Rocha family responded?
It’s hard to know what to say. A few days after the tragedy the trustees who could make it and our A Rocha staff and the Harris and Naylor families bravely came along to a meeting at All Souls in Oxford, and we just prayed and cried, really. Gradually over time we got ourselves organised and that resulted in myself quite unexpectedly becoming executive director.
