Advisory committee

Michael Washburn is President of Washburn Consulting which works with not for profit organizations in the intersection of human rights and environmental issues. Until recently, he was for several years Vice-President of Brand Management for the US office of the Forest Stewardship Council. He was previously the director of the Program on Forest Certification and a Research Scholar at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Washburn has served as an advisor to the USDA Forest Service on issues related to sustainable forest management and is the former national coordinator of the Sustainable Forestry Partnership.

For several years Washburn was a member of the HCROA board of directors. He is now president and a member of the board of Disabilities Fund of America whose mission includes assisting not for profit groups to enter the Combined Federal Campaign.

While at Yale, Washburn helped lead The Intersection Project which sought to integrate the lessons of the environmental and human rights communities in their dealings with major corporations. The Intersection Project was a collaboration between HCROA and Yale’s Program on Forest Certification.

Washburn received a BS in environmental studies and an MS in forest resource management from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse University, and a Ph.D. in forest resources from Penn State. His research includes work on forest recreation in the Adirondack Forest Preserve in New York, and doctoral research on private forest landowners in the US. He has written numerous chapters and articles on certification and sustainable forest management and has been published in the US and in Europe.