The U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation has appointed Donald R. Glaser as the new
mid-Pacific regional director, replacing Kirk Rodgers,
who retired in August.Glaser, 61, will take charge of
the Sacramento regional office, which has a huge
influence on water in California. It operates Folsom and
Shasta dams as well as the Central Valley Project, a
massive canal and pumping system that exports water from
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Born in Long Beach, Glaser graduated from Santa
Barbara High School and earned a bachelor's degree in
business administration and economics from Eastern
Montana University, now Montana State University at
Billings. He worked for the Bureau of Reclamation for 20
years, starting in 1974, in several positions throughout
the West and in Washington, D.C., including serving as
assistant commissioner for resources management and
deputy commissioner.
He has spent the past seven years managing nonprofits
in the Denver area, including the Colorado Foundation
for Water Education and the Douglas Land Conservancy,
and was a senior manager and CEO of the National Fish
and Wildlife Foundation.
He also served as Colorado state director of the U.S.
Bureau of Land Management, and was executive director of
the Presidential Commission on Western Water Policy.
Glaser rejoins the bureau as the agency is managing
the $1.5 billion upgrade to Folsom Dam and is entwined
in a host of environmental challenges confronting the
Delta. He started work Monday and plans to move to
Sacramento with his wife, Sandi, in the near future.
