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Ramona Chinn
In early 2003, when BLM’s land transfer effort was struggling and meeting only minimal annual goals, the Secretary of the Interior and Congress called for improvements to the transfer program. Ms. Chinn was tasked to help turn this around. She was promoted to co-director of the Division of Alaska Lands. The Division’s productivity almost immediately doubled. Chinn sustained and built upon this productivity. She achieved equally impressive results with Native Allotments. When she became co-director, 3,600 Native Allotment parcels remained to be adjudicated. Today, less than 800 parcels remain. In late 2004, Ms. Chinn helped craft the
proposed statute that became the Alaska Land Transfer Acceleration
Act. Ms. Chinn was named Deputy State Director in 2004 and charged
with implementing this Act. The results of her leadership are
quantifiable. Ramona Chinn’s work and dedication have rightly
earned her the Public Land Foundation’s 2008 Outstanding Public
Lands Professional Award in the Managerial/Administrative category. |
RAMONA
CHINN, Deputy State Director for Alaska Lands, has reinvigorated the
Alaska Land Transfer Program. Her fiscal year 2008
accomplishments almost quadrupled typical productivity from
1997-2003 in terms of acres of land transferred to the State of
Alaska and Alaska Native Corporations. More importantly, under
Chinn's leadership, the Division’s productivity has steadily and sustainably grown. In addition to her land
transfer accomplishments, Chinn has integrated Alaska’s lands and
realty function into the Division and led BLM’s initial efforts for
an Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline.