Elizabeth Holmes Gaar brings over 42 years of public service dedicated to natural resources management and collaborative leadership to her role leading Portland State University’s Executive Seminar Program in Natural Resources Leadership.
Her career began with the U.S. Forest Service while earning her degree in fisheries science at Oregon State University, followed by positions as a district fisheries biologist on the Siuslaw and Mt. Hood National Forests. She went on to earn her Juris Doctorate with a certificate in Environmental Law from the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College. While attending law school, she joined NOAA Fisheries, where she first specialized in Clean Water Act permitting and Federal Power Act licensing before being assigned to "figure out," with a few other NOAA Science Center and legal colleagues, how to stand up the West Coast’s first Endangered Species Act (ESA) program for salmon and steelhead in the early 1990s.
Over 35 years with NOAA Fisheries, Elizabeth held leadership roles in ESA and habitat conservation programs, including the first Chief of Endangered Species in the Pacific Northwest, leading the creation of NOAA’s Pacific Northwest ESA program for salmon and steelhead, and as Assistant Regional Administrator for Habitat Conservation. Throughout her career, Elizabeth has collaborated with Columbia Basin tribes and prioritized her teams' responsibilities to uphold our nation’s tribal treaty and trust obligations. A highlight of the last four years of her federal career was facilitating NOAA’s Emerging Leaders Development Program, a year-long leadership development program for future NOAA leaders, in collaboration with PSU’s Center for Public Service in the Hatfield School of Government.
A longtime resident of the upper Hood River Valley, Elizabeth is engaged in a variety of local conservation efforts, including serving on the board of the Mt. Adams Institute, a nonprofit that places veterans in natural resources internships.