Alumna Veronica Brieno Rankin ’99 will serve as a Forest Service lead in a meeting at the White House May 10

UW-Green Bay Alumni Award recipient (Award year, 2006), Veronica Brieno Rankin ’99 (Earth Science) is working with the U.S. Forest Service in Minerals and Geology Management as an assistant director located in Washington D.C. She oversees the Office of Locatable Minerals, Salable Minerals, and Abandoned Mine Lands. This includes serving as the Forest Service lead to meet the requirements of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Public Law 117-58) Section 40206 – Critical Minerals Supply Chains and Reliability and Section 40704-Abandoned Hardrock Mine Reclamation.

In her role, she will be at the White House this week (May 10, 2022), working with others as part of a newly launched interagency working group focusing on reforming hardrock mining laws, regulations and permitting policies in the United States. The group, which will inform potential rulemaking efforts on mining, will help support President Biden’s vision for a whole-of-government effort to promote the sustainable and responsible domestic production of critical minerals.

“The subject of critical minerals has been one of significant national attention in the recent weeks since they are integral to securing national security technology and required to advance electric vehicles and other forms of renewable energy,” she said in a note to UW-Green Bay leaders. “Right now, the U.S. is heavily reliant on foreign sources of critical minerals and there is a movement by the Administration to expedite domestic production of these crucial minerals, which was highlighted when the President invoked the Defense Production Act to bolster critical mineral supply earlier this month. I am very excited to champion this movement on behalf of the Forest Service at such a very important time for our country.”

Brieno Rankin’s husband Ty Rankin ’05 (Biology) is also an alumnus and works at Customs and Border Protection supervising the Agency’s first ever Field Intelligence Operations Unit, where he leads of team of specialists who analyze actual and potential threats to homeland security.