Molly Narens Ross

Molly’s interest in environmental protection has roots in her Harvard experience, where she served as Comstock’s coordinator for the first Earth Day celebration, and she hiked the White Mountains and elsewhere with her then boyfriend (now husband) Peter. Joe Sax’s book Defending the Environment (1971) convinced her to try law school, and after graduating from the University of Chicago Law School and backpacking in Alaska, she started her government career doing National Park Service (NPS) law and policy in Washington, DC. She began by helping to establish and defend President Carter’s national monuments in Alaska, protecting over 56 million acres; and she ended her government career by helping President Obama establish 15 national monuments managed by NPS that expand the telling of the American story (e.g., Stonewall NM, New York; Reconstruction Era NM, South Carolina). Among other positions, Molly served as Special Assistant to the NPS Director, Assistant Solicitor for National Parks, Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary, and Deputy Chief of the NPS Air Quality Division. Shortly after retiring in 2017, Molly joined the founding board—and currently serves as board chair—of the Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters, one of those monuments she helped establish. Molly and Peter now live near their daughters and grandchildren in Sacramento, California, but return as often as possible to their camp on Kezar Lake in southwestern Maine.