Jill Smail, Columbia River Treaty Negotiator for the U.S. Department of State, will open conference

The Forum is pleased to announce that Jill Smail, Columbia River Treaty Negotiator for the U.S. Department of State, will provide the opening keynote for the Lake Roosevelt Forum Conference.

Ms. Smail’s keynote on April 24th at 10:00 a.m. will kick-off a two-hour plenary session on modernizing the Columbia River Treaty. She joined the State Department’s Office of Canadian Affairs as the Columbia River Treaty Negotiator in October 2017.

Before this assignment, Ms. Smail spent about eight years working with Middle East negotiating teams on water issues related to a final status agreement. This included working with parties to achieve greater cooperation in watershed management, research, desalination, infrastructure development and agriculture. While at the state department since 2001, other assignments include serving on a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan and negotiating small arms and light weapons destruction agreements in post-conflict regions.

After the keynote, CRT opinion leaders from the U.S. and Canada will provide their perspectives. As part of this, the audience will share their perspectives via real time, anonymous polling technology. Click here to view current list of CRT panel participants.