Gail L. Achterman Director, Institute for Natural Resources
Institute for Natural Resources Room 210 Strand Hall Corvallis, Oregon 97331 503-725-3099
A.B. Economics, 1971, Stanford University J.D., 1974, University of Michigan M.S., Natural Resource Policy and Management, 1975, University of Michigan
Gail Achterman became the first full-time Director of the Institute for Natural Resources on July 31, 2003. She is a fourth generation Oregonian with broad experience working on natural resource and environmental law and policy.
She began her career as an attorney in the Solicitor’s Office of the U.S. Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. where she advised the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Reclamation from 1975-1978. She returned home to Oregon in 1978 to join what later became the Stoel Rives law firm in Portland. There she worked to help build the Northwest’s first specialty natural resource and environmental law practice. She also started her civic work by serving on the Oregon Water Policy Review Board from 1981-1985.
In 1987, Governor Neil Goldschmidt asked her to be his Assistant for Natural Resources, a position she held from 1987-1991. She was responsible for natural resource, energy and environmental policy development and implementation, working closely with all state resource agencies. She also served as the main liaison with federal resource agencies, including extensive work on plans for Oregon’s national forests. In 1991, she returned to private law practice at Stoel Rives until 2000 when she left to become Executive Director of the Deschutes Resources Conservancy in Bend, Oregon, working on developing voluntary, market-based watershed restoration methods.
Gail continues her extensive civic work by serving on the Oregon Transportation Commission. She also is a member of the board of Northwest Environment Watch.