Please join the Belfer Center's Arctic Initiative for a conversation with two leading experts on U.S. public lands and Arctic policy. John Leshy, Professor Emeritus at the University of California College of the Law in San Francisco, and Fran Ulmer, Arctic Initiative Associate and former Lieutenant Governor of Alaska, will discuss the constant tension between development and conservation at the intersection of law, policy, and politics in Arctic Alaska. Leshy and Ulmer will touch on public lands, Indigenous peoples' rights, climate change, and the Trump administration's plan to unleash "Alaska's resource potential" against the background of the United States' most consequential – and least known – conservation law, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA).
Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow Margaret Williams will moderate. Q&A to follow. Light refreshments will be provided.
This event is in-person only and will not be recorded. A Harvard University ID is required to attend.
About the Speakers
John Leshy is Professor Emeritus at the University of California College of the Law in San Francisco. His books on America’s public lands and related topics include a comprehensive history, Our Common Ground (2022), and a book on the Mining Law of 1872. He held various positions in the federal government for a total of fifteen years and taught law for nearly thirty years, including four stints as visiting professor at Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1969, after earning an A.B. at Harvard College.
Fran Ulmer is an Associate at the Belfer Center's Arctic Initiative. She was the Chair of The Nature Conservancy’s Global Board of Directors and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University from 2017 to 2018. Ulmer was appointed by President Obama as the Chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission (USARC) in March 2011 and served in that role until August 2020. From 2014 to 2017, Ulmer was a Special Advisor on Arctic Science and Policy at the State Department. In June 2010, President Obama appointed her to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. In addition to leadership roles at the University of Alaska Anchorage, she served as an elected official for 18 years in Alaska. Ulmer earned a J.D. cum laude from the University of Wisconsin Law School, and has been a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School.
