Joni Carswell is the CEO and President of Texan by Nature (TxN) where she leads the mission to bring business and conservation together for long-term, sustainable impact. TxN activates new investments and amplifies ideas in conservation that are Texan-led, collaborative, and data-based. As a proud, fourth-generation Texan, Joni pairs her business strategy, engineering and technology background with her passion for Texas and the outdoors to realize TxN’s vision of creating a new conservation ethos among all industries for the benefit of our shared future, health and prosperity.
Prior to Texan by Nature, Joni was the President and CEO of LivingTree, an ed-tech engagement platform, where she grew the company from 1000 to 73 million interactions and 1M+ users. Under Joni’s tenure, LivingTree was recognized with the Stevie Women in Business Gold Award for Community Involvement Program of the Year and Silver Award for Mobile App of the Year. The National School Board Association also named LivingTree in the 2017 Innovation Showcase. Before LivingTree, Joni held leadership roles in planning and strategy at Polycom and Dell where she managed three-year planning for multi-billion dollar product portfolios.
As a top graduate of the Kellogg School of Management (Masters, Business Administration) and Northwestern McCormick School of Engineering (Masters, Engineering Management), Joni is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma and served on the Advisory Board for the Kellogg Women’s Business Association. Joni holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University #GoAggies! She and her husband Scott reside in Austin with their two sons.
Taylor has been with Texan by Nature (TxN) since May 2016. As a TxN Program Manager, she works to amplify and accelerate conservation projects’ impact across the state of Texas through TxN’s Conservation Wrangler program. Taylor also leads marketing and conservation partner programs coordinating communication with TxN’s 75+ conservation partners and overseeing social media, store, and brand awareness initiatives. Taylor enjoys using her creativity and organization to manage programs and implement strategic and innovative project planning to achieve TxN’s mission to positively impact people, prosperity, and natural resources. Taylor received her B.S. in Wildlife Biology from Texas State University. Prior to TxN, Taylor taught vertebrate physiology labs at Texas State University and worked for the Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Plan as Conservation Crew member doing educational outreach, planting, and river clean-ups on the San Marcos River.