Black Woman in Green: Gloria Brown and the Unmarked Trail to Forest Service Leadership

Author Biography

Gloria Brown started work for the USDA Forest Service in Washington, D.C. in 1974. She earned a journalism degree at University of Maryland, College Park and worked her way up in the agency by moving West in 1988 and eventually qualifying as a forester through Oregon State University. In 1999, Gloria became the first African American female Forest Supervisor in the United States, first on Oregon's Siuslaw National Forest and then the Los Padres in California. As supervisor, Gloria received many awards for mediating conflicts between the government and environmentalists. She has three children and lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon.   Dr. Donna Sinclair is an adjunct History professor, public historian, and a museum professional who specializes in oral history. She writes for the National Park Service, has run several major oral history programs, and curated the 2018 'Clark County Stories' exhibit and community conversations in Vancouver, Washington. She continues this work through a 'Women in Politics' project as part of the centennial commemoration for woman suffrage in 2020. Sinclair, who received the 2013 Catherine Prelinger Award for non-traditional women historian, is a member of the Washougal School District Board of Education. She has three children and lives in Washougal, Washington.