Brenda Burman, Commissioner

Brenda Burman
Commissioner

On November 16, 2017, the United States Senate confirmed Brenda Burman as the 23rd Commissioner for the Bureau of Reclamation. She is the first woman sworn in to lead Reclamation.

Burman has more than 25 years of experience working on western issues, with an emphasis on water and natural resources. She previously served in the Department of the Interior as Reclamation's Deputy Commissioner and as Interior's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science. Her career spans experience in Congress as legislative counsel for water and energy for Senator Jon Kyl to state agencies, including The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Salt River Project in Arizona. She was a judicial clerk for the Supreme Court of the state of Wyoming and the Superior Court of Coconino County in Arizona and worked as an attorney in private practice in Arizona. She began her career as a park ranger at Grand Canyon National Park.

Burman holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Arizona College of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College. She is licensed to practice law in Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming.

The Bureau of Reclamation is a contemporary water management agency and the largest wholesale provider of water in the country. It brings water to more than 31 million people and provides one out of five Western farmers with irrigation water for farmland that produces much of the nation's produce. Reclamation is also the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the country.

Updated: February 27, 2019

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