News Releases from Region 05

EPA Selects Two New Members to Great Lakes Advisory Board

CHICAGO (July 8, 2021) – Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that Frank Ettawageshik, executive director of the United Tribes of Michigan, and Laura Rubin, director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, will join the Agency’s Great Lakes Advisory Board.

Frank Ettawageshik is the executive director of the United Tribes of Michigan and will serve as a tribal representative. He also serves on the International Joint Commission’s Great Lakes Water Quality Board and non-profit boards including the Association on American Indian Affairs, Anishinaabemowin Teg, and the Michigan Indian Education Council. Ettawageshik was a 2010 fellow at the Native Nations Institute Indigenous Leaders Fellowship Program at the University of Arizona, and has 40 years of public service with tribal, environmental and historical groups.

Laura Rubin will serve as a representative for environmental non-governmental organizations. Currently the director of the Healing Our Waters/Great Lakes Coalition, which harnesses the collective power of more than 160 groups, Rubin has more than 30 years of experience in environmental protection, policy, and conservation issues. She received the River Network’s 2013 River Hero Award for her national leadership in river protection.

In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the GLAB provides EPA with recommendations on specific Great Lakes issues including implementation of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and domestic implementation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the United States and Canada. The new appointees join current board members who are working to address a set of charge questions developed by the agency. More information is online at https://www.glri.us/glab