Joe Walston is the Vice President for Global Conservation, overseeing WCS's portfolio of field-based programs across 60 countries in Africa, Asia, North America, Latin America and Caribbean as well as the Marine realm and the Wildlife Health and Health Policy Program. He has spent 15 years living in South East Asia (Vietnam and Cambodia), the Congo Basin (Gabon), and Southern Africa (Zambia) before moving to New York in 2010.

Joe began with WCS in 1999 to help establish the WCS Cambodia Program and lead the first nationwide surveys of Cambodian forests since the Khmer Rouge, which resulted in him being awarded the country's highest civilian honor. Joe has published on conservation effectiveness, prioritization of conservation investments, and species strategies, such as a multi-authored analysis on the future of tigers in the wild. Joe also has a specific interest in bat conservation and he sits on the board of Bat Conservation International (BCI). In 2012, a new species of tube-nosed bat was named Murina Walston in recognition of his conservation efforts.