McAlpine, Jan

BIOGRAPHY

Jan McAlpine
Office of Ecology and Terrestrial Conservation (ETC)
Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES)

Ms. McAlpine serves as the lead for Forests, Deserts and Drylands in the Office of Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES), Office of Ecology and Terrestrial Conservation (ETC). She has served in the US Government since 1989, first with the Environmental Protection Agency on international policy issues, including Trade and Environment. Subsequently she worked with the President’s Council on Sustainable Development. Ms. McAlpine served for four years in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as a negotiator on issues relating to international environment and trade. Her primary focus during that time was on forests and timber trade matters. She has been with the Department of State since August 1998.

In representing the United States in forests, Ms. McAlpine began work on forests in the United Nations in the negotiations in the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) which established the Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) and the Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF). She participated in both processes, resulting in the establishment of the United Nations Forum on Forests in 2000.

Prior to her government career, Ms. McAlpine worked for 11 years for the Water Pollution Control Federation, an international, educational association in the water quality field, during which she won the U.S. Industrial Film & Video Festival Silver Screen Award as Producer of the video “H20 TV.”

Jan McAlpine grew up in Francophone Africa, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Kenya and South Africa, the daughter of missionaries. She is the mother of a daughter, Anna Cody McAlpine, who is proud to be ten.