Sally Thomas

Sally is a chartered town planner who spent her early career in local government before joining the Civil Service. Since then, she has built up more than 30 years’ experience in delivering Scottish environmental policy. This has included taking a lead role in its biodiversity and land use strategies.

Between 2017 and 2020, Sally was Director of People and Nature and Chief Scientist at NatureScot. In these roles, she aimed to help tackle climate change and loss of biodiversity by making sure nature was at the heart of decision making.

Sally is now retired but remains a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute. She is also a trustee of the Andrew Raven Trust, which helps Scottish communities with sustainable development and is a member of the National Lottery Heritage Fund Scotland Committee.

In her spare time, Sally enjoys music, hill walking and gardening.