Susan Jane Brown2019Susan Jane Brown and Wilburforce Foundation have a long-standing partnership. We began funding her work in 1999 when she was the Executive Director of the Gifford Pinchot Task Force (now Cascade Forest Conservancy), working to protect Cascadia’s old growth forests, wildlife, and wild rivers. She left the Task Force to serve as Natural Resources Counsel for Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) in Washington, D.C, and then as a staff attorney with the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center, Lewis and Clark Law School’s environmental law clinic. In 2009, Susan Jane joined the Western Environmental Law Center as a staff attorney, and is now their Public Lands Director. A nationally recognized expert on forest law, she has been appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to co-chair the Federal Advisory Committee on the National Forest Management Act. Susan Jane graduated from Vanderbilt University and earned her law degree from Lewis and Clark Law School.
More importantly, we rely on her counsel, her judgement, her leadership, and her insight in helping us develop smart conservation strategies that are not only based on firm legal ground, but also help drive our grantees’ efforts forward in a collaborative, durable manner. There are also mountains full of old forests in the Cascades, thanks to her smart engagement with local communities, decision-makers, and conservationists. Congratulations, Susan Jane!
All bios are from the year the award was presented.