| Rock the Earth Advisory Board Member Robert "Bob" Lippman
currently serves on the Castle Valley (Utah) Town Council. Over the course of a
25-year career, Bob has been an attorney, a college professor, a river guide and
an activist, primarily in Arizona and Utah. Prior to attending law school, Bob
worked as a river guide in the Grand Canyon, and served as a ranger in the
National Park Service, Volunteer in Parks program (Grand Canyon National Park,
1975-1976). He chaired the Environmental Law Society at the University of San
Francisco (1978-1979), and interned with Friends of the Earth (1978-1979). In
1981, Bob founded the Colorado Plateau Office of Friends of the River, directing
that office in Flagstaff for 7 years. During that time he served on the board of
the Western River Guides Association (Arizona Chairman, 1983-1984), and later
co-founded the Colorado Plateau Ecology Alliance (1993-95).
In Bob's legal career, he served on the board of Coconino County Legal Aid
(Flagstaff, Arizona, 1987-96), served as Chief Deputy in the Coconino County
Public Defender;s Office (1988-89), and also directed the Student Legal Services
Office at Northern Arizona University (1986-2002). In addition to his non-profit
work and public service, Bob has served as an adjunct faculty member at both
Prescott College (1992-1993) and Northern Arizona University (1988-2003),
teaching courses in Environmental Law, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Native
American Law, and Political Science. Since 1980, Bob has maintained a private
and public interest practice, emphasizing environmental law and policy
consulting, constitutional law, criminal law and civil rights, Native American
issues, family, and tenant law.
Bob's ongoing environmental campaigns have involved protection and
restoration efforts involving the Colorado River, Grand Canyon National Park,
and Glen Canyon, most recently focusing on issues of sustainability and
watershed bioregionalism. Along those lines, since 1981, Bob has written a
number of articles and made numerous presentations regarding the same. In 1983,
Bob was a delegate to the historic Colorado River Symposium in Santa Fe, and
also presented testimony before the House Committee on Interior and Insular
Affairs regarding mismanagement of Colorado River dams and infrastructure,
advocating for the decommissioning of Glen Canyon dam. In 1990, Bob again urged
for Congressional intervention in Colorado River protection by publishing a
paper with support from the Tides Foundation, entitled "Agency Recalcitrance and
Evasion Regarding Compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act,
Relating to Glen Canyon Dam Operations: A Documented Need for Congressional
Intervention." A similar paper that year also examined issues involving economic
colonialism, and political sovereignty for indigenous tribes and cultures in the
American Southwest. Bob is a graduate of Tulane University (B.A., 1973) and the
University of San Francisco College of Law (J.D., 1979). He is a member of the
Arizona Bar, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona and authorized
to practice law before the Hopi Tribal Court. Bob and his wife, Pamala Hackley,
a soils scientist from Helena, Mt., recently constructed and joyfully moved into
their off-grid, passive solar, adobe and rastra home in Castle Valley. They
immensely enjoy live music, rowing their dory down the Colorado River and its
tributaries, and waxing poetic about the life, times and philosophical
explorations of Edward Abbey.
|
Castle Valley, UT
