Nicole Cordan oversees Pew’s river corridor work. She works in the Portland, Oregon, office, where she leads the team’s efforts to restore free-flowing rivers in the West to allow safe passage for salmon and other aquatic species.
Before joining Pew, Cordan spent over a decade as the policy and legal director for the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, where she ran the campaign to protect and restore Columbia-Snake River salmon. She has served as acting director and attorney in the Western Natural Resource Center of the National Wildlife Federation and as a staff attorney for the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center, where her portfolio included river and fishery issues. Cordan has written and lectured on hydroelectric power and its effects on salmon; the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and Endangered Species Act; global climate change; federal and state water rights; and water quality standards.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Russian and eastern European studies with a minor in biochemistry from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctor from Lewis & Clark Law School.