NEPA Basics Workshop

Ted Boling

Edward (Ted) Boling is the Associate Director for National Environmental Policy Act at the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), a position he assumed in January of 2016 after upon his return to CEQ after five years at the Department of the Interior. Ted served as Deputy Solicitor for Parks & Wildlife at the U.S. Department of the Interior, where he supervised the work of the Solicitor's Office in support of programs of the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Ted joined the Department in August of 2010, as Counselor to the Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management where he focused on land management planning and renewable energy development, and was Deputy Solicitor for Land Resources from April of 2011 to July of 2013. Before Interior, Ted served ten years at CEQ as Deputy General Counsel beginning in August of 2000, General Counsel beginning in January of 2008, and Senior Counsel from September of 2009.

Michael Drummond

Michael Drummond serves as Deputy Associate Director for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) at the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). As a member of CEQ’s NEPA group since 2013, Michael helps oversee Federal agency implementation of the environmental impact assessment process, ensuring that Federal agencies meet their obligations under NEPA. In addition to his general NEPA portfolio, Michael played an active role in several interagency efforts to improve the efficiency of the environmental review process including the Unified Federal Review for Disaster Recovery Projects, the Federal Permitting Improvement Council, the Broadband Interagency Working Group, and the Coordinated Environmental Review Process for Tribal Housing.

Pam Hudson

P.E. Hudson, Esq. is the Counsel, Department of the Navy Office of General Counsel in Naval Base Ventura County, California, where she serves as the Counsel for the CSFE and EDO School Domains, and as Civil Engineer Corps
Officers School as the Environmental Law and Planning Training Director. The focus of her practice is environmental law and planning, and specifically NEPA; she also develops and teaches courses involving NEPA, environmental planning and impact analysis, and environmental law, with a special emphasis on coastal and ocean resources, to federal employees. She has published twelve federal agency, academic and peer-reviewed articles on environmental planning and impact assessment since 2013. She formerly served as a litigator at a large firm in private practice, and as a federal clerk. She is a member of the bars of California, Florida and Georgia and the Supreme Court of the United States. Ms. Hudson retired from the Navy as a Commander (Oceanography). Any views expressed are Ms. Hudson’s personal views and not necessarily those of the Department of Defense, Navy or
Federal Government.

Michael Smith

Dr. Smith is a leading National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) compliance practitioner with over 20 years of experience in environmental impact assessment, project and program management, technical analysis, policy development, and training/education for a wide range of public and private sector clients. He is currently a Senior Environmental Practice Leader with GEI Consultants in Sacramento, CA, one of North America’s leading geotechnical, environmental, water resources, and ecological science and engineering firms. GEI has provided consulting and engineering services on over 35,000 projects in all 50 U.S. states and internationally in over 20 countries. He has managed and provided compliance review for some of North America’s largest, most complex, and highly controversial projects, including major energy and transportation infrastructure projects, regulation of genetically engineered plants, commercial space transportation operations, and approval of new fuel economy standards for all vehicles operated in the U.S. 

Technical areas of expertise include cumulative impact analysis; GHG emissions and climate change analysis; socioeconomics and environmental justice analysis; and designing strategies for streamlining EIA processes and reviews. He frequently provides training and strategic advice for NEPA, CEQA, and related environmental compliance requirements as a faculty member at the UC Davis Extension Planning and Sustainability Program, the UCLA Extension Sustainability Program, the NEPA Certificate Program at the Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State University, and as a Senior Consultant at The Shipley Group. He is a past recipient of a Science & Technology Policy Fellowship with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) at EPA’s Office of Water and Office of Federal Activities in Washington, DC. From 1998 to 2007, he was an Associate Professor of Environmental and Natural Resources Sciences at Humboldt State University in northern California. . He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental and Natural Resources Sociology from Utah State University, an M.A. in Geography from the University of Wyoming, and a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.