Photo by John Courtney
John Courtney, Ph.D.
John was elected to the board in 2024 after being a Friends member and donor for many years. A native of Louisiana, Dr. John Courtney is a double-boarded neuropsychologist and is currently the Associate Director of Psychiatry for Presbyterian Medical Services in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Before moving to New Mexico in 2015, John owned clinics in Indiana and was the previous director of psychology at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans.
He has held faculty appointments at several universities, most recently Tulane University Health Sciences Center and the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. In addition to his professional career, he is an avid nature photographer whose photography has been exhibited in various galleries across the US as well as in publications. His photographic work, including images of the Bosque del Apache, can be seen at www.
As a prescribing neuropsychologist and photographer, John fully understands the healing qualities of nature and often prescribes time outdoors to his patients. He has always considered wetlands and water an integral part of his life; when he first arrived in Socorro, he was delighted to find the wetlands at Bosque del Apache so nearby. Arriving at Bosque del Apache for the first time felt like a “homecoming” to him. Though he has moved to Las Cruces now, he often returns to Bosque del Apache. Visiting often, John feels a sense of ownership and responsibility to help protect this special place and its wildlife, and one way to ensure that is to take photographs that help others fall in love with this oasis in the desert. He noted that each of us needs to do our part to be good stewards—speaking out and advocating for wildlife and public lands and doing whatever we can to ensure that precious places like Bosque del Apache are sustained.