Mr. Thomas B. Williams
Tom Williams served on the staff of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (and its predecessor the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee) for more than 25 years. When he left the Committee in January of 1999 and retired from federal service, he was the Democratic Staff Director under Arkansas Senator Dale Bumpers. He also served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks at the Department of the Interior in 1993.
Born in Joplin, Missouri and raised in Arkansas, Tom graduated from high school in Little Rock. He received a Bachelor of Arts and a Master’s degree in Political Science from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and Washington State University, respectively.
Currently, Mr. Williams is a consultant and Director of Federal Projects for The Conservation Fund, an Arlington, Virginia, based non-profit land trust. He is the founder and president of The Williams Group, a consulting firm specializing in natural resource and public lands’ issues. Mr. Williams is a former member of the Secretary of the Interior's Advisory Board on the National Park System and currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Gifford Pinchot Institute for Conservation.
Mr. Williams is an adjunct professor at American University in the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies and the School of Public Affairs where he teaches classes in the legislative process, public policy, interest groups, energy and environmental policy and the impact of technology on democracy and our political institutions. He received the University Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching in an Adjunct Appointment in 2004. Tom also serves as a visiting faculty member at the Eastern Management Development Center in Shepherdstown, WV and the Graduate School, USDA, where he conducts training seminars in congressional operations and environmental and natural resource policy.
Mr. Williams is a member of the American Political Science Association, the National Capital-Area Political Science Association, Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, Alpha Chi National College Honor Society and Blue Key and Golden Key Honor Societies. He lives in northern Virginia with his wife, Betsy Moler, and their two children.