GLIN==> Alliance President Tapped as Administration's Great Lakes Czar

Alliance for the Great Lakes

For Immediate Release                                          
Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Contact: Jack Bails                                        
517-230-0351                                           

Alliance President Tapped as Obama Administration’s Great Lakes Czar

Cameron Davis, president and CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, has been tapped by the Obama administration to serve as special advisor to the U.S. EPA overseeing its Great Lakes restoration plan.

“Cameron Davis’s work at the Alliance for the Great Lakes during the last 23 years has helped put the Great Lakes on the national radar -- not only with the new administration and Congress, but with states, cities and countless citizens,” said Jack Bails, Alliance board chairman.

“His passion and commitment to the Great Lakes has earned him the unofficial title of ‘Mr. Great Lakes’ in recent years,” he said. “This makes it official.”

Bails said the administration’s confidence in Davis to spearhead efforts to coordinate nearly a dozen federal agencies’ efforts under a new “Great Lakes Restoration Initiative” is a tribute to the Alliance’s reputation for excellence, integrity, bipartisanship and results.

During his 11 years as chief executive, Davis led the organization to receive the American Bar Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Environmental Law & Policy, the first time a not-for-profit citizens organization has won the honor.

The Alliance -- North America’s oldest Great Lakes citizens’ organization -- has seen more than a decade of successes under Davis’ leadership, among them the launch of the Adopt-a-Beach™ stewardship program, now 7,000 volunteers strong and active on four of the five Great Lakes. Davis helped write and pass the Great Lakes Legacy Act and subsequent reauthorization legislation that directly hastened critical contaminated sediment cleanups in the Great Lakes. Most recently, the Alliance helped write and pass the landmark Great Lakes Compact adopted by Congress and signed into law last fall, providing historic protections for Great Lakes waters.

“Cam leaves the Alliance with credible and capable leadership, an unmatched professional staff and a board that has been culled for its experience and dedication to the health and enduring legacy of the Great Lakes,” Bails said.

“The Alliance -- its volunteers, members, staff and board — is a testament to the ability of people to organize and leave the Great Lakes better for the next generation,” said Davis. “This organization is comprised of some of this region’s greatest heroes and I’m counting on it to keep attracting volunteers and supporters to save the Great Lakes.”

Joel Brammeier, the Alliance’s vice president for policy and a staff member at the organization for eight years, will be appointed interim Alliance president and CEO upon Davis’s scheduled June 30 departure.

An executive transition team has been appointed to assist Brammeier and help lead the organization through a search for Davis’s successor.

For more information, see http://www.greatlakes.org/cdavis


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Formed in 1970, the Alliance for the Great Lakes is the oldest independent citizens' organization in North America. Its mission is to conserve and restore the world's largest freshwater resource using policy, education and local efforts, ensuring a healthy Great Lakes and clean water for generations of people and wildlife. More about the Alliance for the Great Lakes is online at www.greatlakes.org.


Susan Campbell
Communications Manager
Alliance for the Great Lakes
414-540-0699
Visit http://www.greatlakes.org



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