Dennis Markatos-Soriano has served as executive director of the East Coast Greenway since 2009. He and a staff of 15+ work alongside volunteers, partners and elected officials to complete the 3,000-mile, Maine-to-Florida Greenway and promote its use. Under his watch, the East Coast Greenway has grown from 18 to 37 percent complete, adding more than 500 new miles of Greenway. Markatos-Soriano has quadrupled the organization’s funding through his cultivation of foundations, corporations and individual donors. Markatos-Soriano holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead and Byrd Scholar; and a master’s in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University, where he received the 2008 Bradford Prize for Academic & Civic Achievement in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy. Prior to joining the Alliance, he served as executive director of two nonprofit organizations he co-founded: Students United for a Responsible Global Environment (SURGE) and Sustainable Energy Transition. A native of rural Chatham County near the town of Pittsboro, he now lives in Durham. Markatos-Soriano enjoys soccer, basketball, riding his bike and time outdoors with his wife, kids, extended family and friends.