Last modified:

February 20, 2002

This page is Bobby Approved

Department's vision statement:
The people and industries that operate in our state have both the corporate conscience and the technical ability to work with us on constructive solutions to basic environmental management and public health issues. We anticipate, collaborate, negotiate, educate and communicate to address the most important environmental and public health risks to Alaska and Alaskans. Investigation, legislation, regulation and litigation are available tools, but not the first tools of choice.

The chief executive office of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation provides agency direction and administration and acts as policy liaison with the Governor's Office and Legislature.

Primary Services:

• Provides policy direction for the department.

• Ensures that public concerns are fully considered in department decisions and actions.

• Establishes the department's objectives and assures performance.

• Serves as chief spokesperson for the Governor on environmental matters.

• Serves as judge for administrative appeals.

DEC's Organization

To ensure that the department's regulations are written in "plain English" and that the process for amending regulations follows Alaska's legal procedures. To assist staff with questions regarding the public records law and other statutory and regulatory requirements.

Primary services

• Provides assistance in writing regulations.
• Coordinates responses to public records requests.
• Acts as liaison for administrative hearings.
• Conducts research and works with attorneys at Department of Law.

Laura Hastings, Regulatory Specialist
Telephone: (907) 465-5061
Fax Number: (907) 465-5070
Email: laura_hastings@envircon.state.ak.us

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Michele Brown, Commissioner

Michele Brown was appointed commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation on January 20, 1996, by Governor Tony Knowles.

Ms. Brown formerly was a DEC deputy commissioner, regional administrator of the southcentral region which was headquartered in Anchorage, and an assistant attorney general in the Alaska Department of Law, where she represented and advised the Departments of Environmental Conservation, Natural Resources, Fish and Game, and Community and Regional Affairs. In that position, she worked extensively on the Exxon Valdez spill response to deal with many of its legal, regulatory, and enforcement problems.

In 1993, Ms. Brown was appointed as senior environmental specialist for the USAID Mission in Moscow, where she administered the agency's environmental technical assistance projects to Russia, including sustainable natural resources management, industrial environmental management, and multiple source pollution management in the widespread regions of the country.

Ms. Brown attended college at the University of California, Berkeley, and received her law degree from the University of California, Davis. Alaska has been her home since 1977.

Ms. Brown has published law journal articles on the Exxon Valdez oil spill and has been an invited speaker at many conferences on issues ranging from environmental development programs in Russia to oil spill response, oil pipeline regulation, and public participation in environmental decision making.

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