Stapled on a wall below the boat’s upper deck is a license that allows Brooke Findley to catch halibut. Findley started working on the family fishing boat in Alaska at age nine, and at age fifteen became eligible to work as a licensed commercial fisherman. Every year for three weeks Brooke steps out of her shoes as a Senior Program Manager at SPPG and steps into her fishing boots to catch halibut (and at other times, salmon) that can weigh up to 300 pounds. Surely, no easy task.
Brooke grew up working around the family’s grain elevator in Stuart, and around her parent’s fishing business in Alaska, in the family since the late 1960s. Her early experiences in Alaska may have inspired her interest in environmental policies and study. While still in high school she conducted research at Mayo Clinic, was awarded a NASA scholarship, and earned her degree at Drake University in environmental policy.
While still at Drake, Brooke was immersed into the legislative sausage-like process of policy making by serving as the Chief Legislative Assistant to a House member. After two sessions, she became an Investment Officer for the State of Iowa Treasurer and also supported the office’s legislative agenda as the liaison to the General Assembly and then came to SPPG as a Program Manager. She continues her ties with Drake and serves as Alumni Advisor to Alpha Kappa Psi’s Beta Phi Chapter, a national business fraternity.
Upon joining SPPG, Findley’s wonderful reckless enthusiasm put her in a variety of situations to use her skills in media relations, project management, and research. In addition to continuing with other projects, she was soon named as the Network Lead for the Iowa Afterschool Alliance. But her heart is only a fathom away from her love of fishing and the environment. Her journal article, Critical Junctures in Environmental Policy: the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, oozes with factual concern about our earth’s future and that diabolical incident. But when the day is done, she is welcomed home by her connector, her comfort, her renowned seven year old turtle, Spee-dee, who she proudly proclaims “can flip himself over by himself when he is on his back.”
