Elizabeth McManus
Principal
Elizabeth joined Ross & Associates in 2000 after ten years working on state/federal relationships and hazardous waste cleanup policy and implementation for the Washington State Department of Ecology and US EPA in Seattle and Washington DC. Elizabeth is a talented designer, convener, and facilitator of collaborative processes, routinely helping groups find common ground and define durable outcomes. At the national level, she has worked successfully with diverse stakeholder groups on projects related to Superfund reform, emergency preparedness, security practices, and resiliency for water and wastewater utilities, and creating and achieving a new national vision for the national waste prevention and management program. At the local and regional level, she has worked with groups on brownfields program creation and assessment, water allocation in the Columbia River, watershed characterization and alternative approaches to aquatic mitigation, salmon hatchery policy in the mid-Columbia, and closure of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
She is a sought-after advisor to government and others on clean up and hazardous waste policy, creating logical and practical approaches to inter-related cleanup programs and requirements, and shifting historically waste-focused programs towards sustainable materials management approaches. Elizabeth’s experience working in both state and federal governments and in both policy development and in implementation gives her insight into the workings of government and the practical challenges that policy makers face.
Outside of work Elizabeth and her husband chase a 2 year-old son and a border collie around the yard, grow a little bit more of what they eat each year, and try to keep a 110 year old house from falling down around their ears. They talk a lot about rowing and occasionally still get out on the water to row.