Richard Louv is an author and futurist focused on nature, family and community. His most recent book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder, has stimulated an international conversation about the future relationship between children and nature, and has helped spawn a movement that is now moving far beyond national borders.

He serves as chairman of the Children & Nature Network, an organization helping to build the international movement to connect children with nature. He also serves as honorary co-chair of The National Forum on Children and Nature. Co-chaired by four U.S. governors, the Forum will fund programs around the country designed to get kids outside. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at Clemson University.

In 2008, Louv was awarded the Audubon Medal by the National Audubon Society. Past recipients have included Rachel Carson, E.O. Wilson, Robert Redford and Jimmy Carter. He is also the recipient of the 2007 Clemson University Cox Award for "sustained achievement in public service," and the Paul K. Petzoldt Award from the Wilderness Education Association, among other honors.

Discover Magazine named Last Child in the Woods one of the top science books of the year in 2005. Spirituality & Health Magazine named it one of the 50 Best Spiritual Books of the year. And, in 2006, the National School Board Journal chose Last Child in the Woods as a notable book in education.

Louv has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post and many other newspapers and magazines. He was a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune, a columnist and member of the advisory board for Parents Magazine, an adviser to both the Ford Foundation's Leadership for a Changing World award program and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. He has appeared on the CBS Morning Show, Good Morning America, The Today Show, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, NPR's Talk of the Nation, and many other programs.

An inspirational speaker and visionary, Louv's mission is to redirect our educational systems to put the natural world on a level playing field with classroom learning and prevent generations of children for a lifetime of ecophobia.