Darron Collins is the Executive Director of the Cromwell Harbor Foundation. Previously, he served as College of the Atlantic (COA)’s 7th president from 2011-2024. He received his B.A. in human ecology from College of the Atlantic (COA) in 1992 and holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from Tulane University.
Prior to becoming COA’s president, Collins spent ten years managing international conservation projects in the Amazon, Mongolia, and the Russian Far East with World Wildlife Fund.
Collins has conducted ethnobotanical research among the Q’eqchi’-Maya (pronounced KECK CHI) of Guatemala, investigative reporting of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and written and directed the award- winning documentary, “Amur River Basin: Sanctuary for the Mighty Taimen” (pronounced, TAY-men). He is a Barry Goldwater Science Scholar, a Thomas J. Watson Fellow, and a Fellow National of The Explorers Club.
A native of Morris Plains, New Jersey, Collins is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Irish. He once spoke Q’eqchi’-Maya quite well, but that language now sits dormant somewhere in the deeper recesses of Wernicke’s area. He is an avid fly-fisherman and trail runner. Darron lives in Bar Harbor, Maine with his wife, Karen. He has two daughters, Maggie and Molly.