Marilyn Heiman

Marilyn Heiman joined Pew in January 2009 as director of the U.S. Arctic Program, which works to protect the U.S. Arctic Ocean and its marine life from rapid industrialization made possible by the warming climate and the melting ice cap.

Before joining Pew, Heiman was campaign manager for the International Boreal Conservation Campaign, which works to protect one of the largest forest ecosystems on Earth. She served as the Secretary of Interior’s Alaska policy advisor during the Clinton administration. In that capacity, she coordinated activities of the Bureau of Land Management, the Minerals Management Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska. As Alaska representative to the Secretary of Interior, she served on the six-person Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council.

Previously, she was special assistant on natural resources and oceans for Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles and was director of his statewide transition team after his election in 1994. Prior to that she worked as an aide to the House Resources Committee in the Alaska legislature during the Exxon Valdez oil spill and was staff to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Commission.

Heiman holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She currently serves on the board of the Puget Sound Keeper Alliance.