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Suzanne Skinner to head Washington's "water watchdog" Center for Environmental Law & Policy


Contact:

  1. •Suzanne Skinner (CELP) skinnersuzanne@hotmail.com


  1. •John Osborn  (CELP)  john@waterplanet.ws


Spokane --  Today the Center for Environmental Law & Policy announced that Suzanne Skinner has been selected to serve as its next executive director, starting in October.  CELP co-founder Rachael Paschal Osborn and current executive director will transition to the organization's senior staff attorney.   CELP, as an advocate for the public interest in protecting drinking water aquifers and river flows, is at the center of the growing public debate over water scarcity and the future of water in a changing climate. 

"I share CELP's advocacy for water," said Skinner. "Water sustains our fisheries, the Tribes, our economy, food, and life itself.  I intend to continue CELP's extraordinary water advocacy in the state, region, and nation."

Skinner is an attorney who has worked in environmental law and policy for over 20 years in the United States and Asia.  She served as an attorney for American Rivers and the City of Seattle; a water resources and shorelines judge for the Washington State Environmental Hearings Office (EHO); and a mediator and researcher for a Hong Kong think tank.   For eight years Skinner served as Civil Director of the Seattle City Attorney's Office, where she oversaw the work of fifty attorneys and staff.

While with the EHO, Skinner worked on precedent-setting decisions on the connections between surface water and groundwater, as well as stream flows, water quality, and genetic impacts of salmon aquaculture in Puget Sound.

"We are thrilled to have Suzanne as CELP's next Executive Director," said John Osborn, Spokane physician and CELP's Board President.  "CELP is on the cutting edge of history in water decisions across the region from the Spokane River and Aquifer in north Idaho to the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula.  Suzanne Skinner brings her intellect in jurisprudence and a moral commitment to protecting the public's water."

CELP was founded in 1993 within the University of Washington School of Law to serve as a voice for the public interest in water.  Now independent of the University, CELP is the only "water watchdog" advocacy organization dedicated solely to protecting the state's waters.

Links:

  1. •About the Center for Environmental Law & Policy

  2. •CELP's water advocacy

 

 

News Release
August 11, 2011

Suzanne Skinner

incoming executive director for the Center for Environmental Law & Policy - Washington’s water watchdog.


Suzanne Skinner has been an attorney and environmental activist for over 20 years.  Before joining CELP, she served as the Director of the Civil Division of the Seattle City Attorney's Office from 2001 to 2010, and represented in the City and elected officials in a broad spectrum of political and legal issues. From 1999-2001, Suzanne lived in Hong Kong where she was a founder of Civic Exchange, a public policy think tank focused on improving the quality of democratic dialog, and environmental and public policy in Hong Kong. Suzanne also served as an Administrative Appeals Judge for the Washington State Environmental Hearings Office from 1995-1999, and was involved in major decisions regarding hydraulic continuity and permitting for Atlantic salmon net pens.  She also  litigated hydro power and salmon issues for American Rivers out of its Seattle office from 1993-1995.  Prior to moving to the Northwest, Suzanne was an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York for five years where she specialized in environmental cases, including a major Clean Air Act case for asbestos contamination against Con Edison, and Civil RICO cases against organized crime families. She clerked for the Hon. Malcolm Muir, United States District Judge, Pennsylvania.  She has most recently been working as assistant general counsel for Summit Power, an alternative energy developer.  She currently serves on board of the Seattle Shakespeare Company, and has served on the boards of the Trust for Public Lands Open Space Committee, Washington Appleseed, Youth Theater Northwest  and the Children's Campaign Fund, in addition to other community service. She received her J.D. from Northeastern Law School (1984) and undergraduate degrees in Zoology and English  from the University of Washington.