College of Law

Faculty and Staff

B.S., Utah State University, Wildlife Science (1974), Outstanding Senior, College of Natural Resources
M.S. Texas A&M University, Wildlife Biology (1977), University Fellow
J.D. University of Colorado School of Law (1989), Order of the Coif

Email: ddonahue@uwyo.edu

Publications
Presentations
CV

 

Debra L. Donahue served on the College of Law faculty from 1992 to 2013. She taught Public Land Law, Environment & Natural Resources Law & Policy, Native American Natural Resources Law, Indian Law, Hazardous Waste & Water Pollution Law, Land Use, Natural Resources seminars, Legal Writing I & II, and Administrative Law. She also taught in the School of Environment and Natural Resources and in the American Indian Studies Department.

Professor Donahue spent 2002 in New Zealand as a visiting lecturer/researcher at the University of Auckland School of Law in Auckland and the University of Canterbury School of Forestry in Christchurch. While in New Zealand, she consulted with law professors, ecologists, NGO administrators, and Maori iwi (tribal) officials on biodiversity and land conservation issues.

Professor Donahue has published books, book chapters, and legal and scientific articles in the areas of Indian Law, public land grazing policy, biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation, endangered species protection, and water pollution. Her work on grazing was featured in numerous local and regional newspapers, Denver Post, and USA Today; she has done interviews for several radio and television stations, including NPR, High Country News Radio, and Canadian Broadcasting Corp. ("As It Happens"); and she was featured in the Sierra Club Documentary film "Desert or Pasture: Cattle and the American Southwest" (2002).

From 1999-2001 she served as a member of the National Research Council's Water Science & Technology Board Committee on Riparian Zone Functioning and Strategies for Management. She is currently an Academic Trustee of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation. She serves on the Board of Advisors for the University of Colorado's Natural Resources Law Center, and on the Science and Policy Advisory Board for Western Watersheds Project. In 2000 she was named the Wyoming Wildlife Federation's Resource Conservationist of the Year.

Prior to joining the College of Law faculty, Professor Donahue served as staff attorney for the National Wildlife Federation in Anchorage, AK, and as judicial clerk for Judge Wade Brorby, Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Cheyenne, WY. Her pre-law positions included executive director, Wyoming Outdoor Council; environmental coordinator, Freeport Gold Company, Nevada; and various positions with federal land management agencies.

Teaching: Environmental Law, Federal Indian Law, Native American Natural Resources Law, Public Lands