Say hello to Anne Castle. She is a senior fellow at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment at the University of Colorado Law School, focusing on western water issues, including Colorado River policy and management. She is a founding member of the Water Policy Group. Castle was appointed by President Biden in September 2022 as the U.S. Commissioner on the Upper Colorado River Commission.
From 2009 to 2014, Castle was the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the U.S. Department of the Interior where she oversaw water and science policy for the Department and had responsibility for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Geological Survey. While at Interior, Castle spearheaded the Department’s WaterSMART program, which provides federal leadership and funding to support sustainable water supplies and launched the federal Open Water Data Initiative. Castle provided hands-on leadership on Colorado River issues and was the Chair of the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Work Group and a champion of Minute 319 between the US and Mexico.
Castle practiced law for 28 years in Denver, Colorado with the Rocky Mountain based law firm of Holland & Hart LLP, specializing in water issues. She chaired the law firm’s management committee and its natural resources law department. She serves on the boards of the Colorado Water Trust, Stanford University’s Water in the West program, the Salazar Center for North American Conservation, and is a team member of an initiative on universal access to clean drinking water on Indian reservations.