Montana and Oregon members will lead Power Council in 2019

Montana and Oregon members will lead the Northwest Power and Conservation Council in 2019. This week the Council elected officers for the year.

Montana member Jennifer Anders, the Council’s vice chair in 2018, was elected chair. She was appointed to the Council in January 2013 by Governor Steve Bullock. Ms. Anders worked closely with Governor Bullock during his 2009-2012 tenure as Montana’s Attorney General, tackling a number of high profile issues including energy development, water quality, climate change, public land management, and interstate water compact allocations. She has spent her entire professional career in public service, working for four separate attorneys general in both the civil and criminal arena. Ms. Anders has a law degree from the University of Montana and an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Oregon member Richard Devlin was elected vice chair. He was appointed to the Council in 2018 by Governor Kate Brown. Devlin brings a broad diversity of experience to the Council and a lifelong interest in conservation and evidence-based public policy. He has served 31 years as an elected official, first at the local and regional level, where he focused on open space and habitat conservation, land use planning, and transportation.

In 1996 he was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives. He continued his interest in transportation, and expanded into education, economic development, election law and natural resources.

Elected to the Senate in 2002, he was appointed to the Joint Ways and Means Committee and chaired subcommittees on education and natural resources. From 2007 to 2010 he was the Majority Leader of the Senate. He then was appointed Co-Chair of Ways and Means, a position he held until his appointment to the Council.

He graduated from Portland State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Administration of Justice and Pepperdine University with a Master of Arts in Management. His occupational background is in adult and juvenile corrections, civil and criminal investigations, and he served in the United States Marine Corps.