Eric Washburn (1990)




Fellowship Year: 1990
Academic Background: Yale University - Ph.D.
Eric Washburn currently is one of two principle partners and owners of Windward Consulting, LLC, providing federal legislative advice to industry, non-profit, and philanthropic foundation clients on a broad range of natural resource and energy issues. His primary work is as counsel to the Bi-Partisan CenterNational Commission on Energy Policy. Previously, Mr. Washburn was the Executive Director of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), a coalition of 1400 conservation organizations dedicated to protecting fish and wildlife habitat. In 2003, Mr. Washburn was a Senior Public Policy Advisor at Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell, and Berkowitz, where he represented energy-related businesses and donated time on a pro-bono basis to establishing the TRCP. For over ten years, Mr. Washburn worked in various policy-making and management capacities in the United States Senate. From June 2001 until 2003, he worked for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle as a Senior Policy Advisor, during which time he oversaw the development and U.S. Senate passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2002. From January, 2001 until June 2001, he was the Staff Director for the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, staffing Ranking Member Harry Reid, returning to Senator Daschle’s office when Senator Reid ceded leadership of the committee to Senator Jim Jeffords. Before joining the EPW Committee, he was the Legislative Director to U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Thomas A. Daschle for four years. Prior to that, he was the Legislative Assistant to Senator Daschle for energy and environmental issues, where he led the development of Senate Democratic Caucus strategy on a variety of energy and environmental issues, including regulatory reform, renewable energy, federal lands grazing, mining, oil and gas extraction, federal timber management policy, global climate change, electricity marketing, the Endangered Species Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act. Before working in the U.S. Senate, Mr. Washburn was a consultant to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). In 1991, he was a staff scientist for the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM). In 1988 and 1989 he worked as an analyst for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. He holds a Masters Degree in Forest Science from the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a Bachelors Degree in Psychobiology from Bowdoin College. Mr. Washburn has a wife, Robin Schepper, and two sons, Marat, and Shokhan. In his spare time he enjoys hunting, fishing, sailing, scuba diving, and reading.
Expertise: Energy & Climate Change, Environmental Policy & Law