Patrick Shea, director of the Bureau of Land Management, will give a public address titled, "The New West: Conflicting Visions," at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Thursday, Nov. 12.
He will speak at 7 p.m. in room 270 of the Hale Science Building. The event is sponsored by the Center of the American West and is free and open to the public.
As BLM director, Shea has policy and administrative responsibility for 270 million acres of land and oversees a workforce of about 9,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $1 billion.
"We are going to lower the temperature and engage in meaningful and productive dialogue," Shea said after his confirmation in 1997. "We will focus on being good neighbors, practicing good science and being productive partners."
Shea, a native of Salt Lake City, was a prominent lawyer, educator and businessman in Utah before assuming his current position. He has represented oil, gas and mining companies and served on The Nature Conservancy Board for Utah. He also was an adjunct professor of political science at Brigham Young University Law School.
Shea earned a bachelor's degree from Stanford University in 1970 and was a Rhodes Scholar. He earned a master's degree from Oxford University in 1972 and a law degree from Harvard University in 1975.