CRITFC Staff
Aja DeCoteau

Executive Director
Office of the Executive Director Department Portland Main Office
Biography
Aja DeCoteau is a citizen of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and has other tribal lineage with the Cayuse, Nez Perce and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. She has over twenty years of experience working on natural resource management and policy issues in the Columbia River Basin. Prior to serving as the Executive Director, she was CRITFC’s Watershed Department Manager where she coordinated fisheries restoration and watershed protection activities and climate change researched response on behalf of the Yakama, Nez Perce, Umatilla, and Warm Springs tribes.
Aja also sits on the following boards and councils:
- National Park System Board of Advisors
- Earthjustice Board of Trustees
- Native American Agriculture Fund Board of Trustees
- American Rivers Board of Directors
- Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) Board of Directors
- Yale Center for Environmental Justice Advisory Council
- Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s Independent Scientific Advisory Board’s Administrative Oversight Panel
Education
- Bachelor of Arts, Environmental Studies and Native American Studies, Dartmouth College
- Master of Environmental Management, Yale University, School of the Environment