About J.R. Childress - Ecologist, Business Leader & Author
I'm J.R. Childress, and I live at the intersection of three worlds: ecology, corporate leadership, and environmental storytelling. My eco-thriller novels are born from a passion for ocean and amazon ecosystems, building global organizations, and witnessing firsthand the environmental destruction that threatens our planet's future.
My journey began in the waters of the Mediterranean, learning to scuba dive in Lebanon in 1968 while studying at the American University of Beirut. It continued through graduate studies in marine ecology at Harvard University where I had the extraordinary privilege of learning under Professor E.O. Wilson, one of the world's greatest biologists. I also studied at the University of Hawaii under Dr. Ernest Reese, deepening my understanding of island-ocean ecosystems and marine conservation.
But life took an unexpected turn in 1975. With a Ph.D. in marine ecology on the horizon, I entered the world of management consulting, a decision that would shape the next four decades of my professional life and ultimately inform the corporate corruption and environmental themes in my novels. In 1978, I co-founded what became an international leadership and management consultancy with offices in Los Angeles, New York, and London. As President and CEO for 23 years, I worked with major corporations on organizational transformation, safety culture, and executive leadership.
One of my early and most formative consulting assignments came after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. I was brought in to help build a safety culture in the nuclear industry, work that taught me how corporate priorities, regulatory failures, and leadership decisions can have catastrophic consequences. This experience directly informs the environmental and business issues portrayed in my novels. This insider perspective on corporate decision-making, combined with my marine ecology background, gives my eco-thrillers their authenticity. I don't just write about environmental villains, I understand the boardroom dynamics, the rationalization of harmful practices, and the corruption and government failures that allow environmental destruction to continue.
Why I Write Eco-Thrillers
I write eco-thrillers because fiction can do something that scientific papers and corporate reports cannot: it can make people feel the urgency of environmental crises. A statistic about illegal fishing, say, that 90% of commercial fish stocks are on the verge of collapse, is shocking. But following characters as they risk their lives to stop illegal fishing fleets makes that statistic visceral and real. My novels inform, entertain, and educate. They're meticulously researched, featuring real environmental organizations, actual ecological disasters, and scientifically accurate portrayals of environmental crises. But they're also page-turning thrillers with compelling characters, high stakes, and stories that keep readers engaged from the first page to the last.
I believe writers have a responsibility to address the urgent issues of our time. Climate change, ocean destruction, deforestation, species extinction, these aren't problems for future generations. They're happening now, and we need stories that wake people up to these realities. Whether you're an environmental advocate, a thriller reader, or someone who simply cares about our planet's future, I invite you to explore my novels and join the conversation about how we can work together to protect the ecosystems that sustain all life on Earth.