P. David Allen II
David Allen is an award-winning scientist and author. He directed the natural resource damage assessment of the Lower Fox River and the Bay of Green Bay from 1992 through 2001 as the assessment manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. His team led the $10 million effort to collect and organize the information that was used to launch Superfund at the site, and they published one of the most comprehensive and public natural resource damage assessments in U.S. history during 1998-2000. He was the leader and public face of the assessment for federal, state, and tribal agencies. That assessment eventually led to $1.3 billion of cleanup and restoration, paid by the polluters. It was among the largest Superfund efforts since the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, and the effort led to the largest PCB cleanup in history.
Allen was named “Outstanding Public Servant of the Year” in 2002 by the Clean Water Action Council of Northeast Wisconsin. In 2001, he was formally recognized by the U.S. Attorney in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for his contribution to environmental enforcement efforts in the state of Wisconsin. In 2000, he was formally recognized by his agency for leadership and professional competence as the assessment manager of the Green Bay damage assessment, and in 1997 for scientific professionalism, contaminant investigations, and natural resource damage claims.
He went on to become a vice president at Stratus Consulting, Inc. There, he led the opening of a Washington, D.C. office while bringing in new clients and helping the company grow from $8 million per year and 50 staff to $20 million per year and 100 staff. He worked as a technical and strategic expert for seven federal agencies, 17 state agencies, and 16 Native American tribes in 25 states. He conducted field studies, analyzed data and evidence, served as a consulting expert for litigation, and led negotiations for governmental parties with potentially responsible parties and defendants.
After retiring in 2013, Allen chaired the City of Marquette Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, a tax financing board addressing contaminated, blighted, and historic sites. He also served on the boards of the State of Michigan and Marquette County League of Women Voters, leading the latter’s Observer Corps, and serving as a delegate to the 2019 and 2023 state conventions and the 2020 national convention. He also performs regularly as a musician in three orchestras, two bands, and four chamber groups.
Susan Campbell
Susan Campbell is an award-winning environmental journalist, author, and communications specialist. She covered the Fox River and Green Bay cleanup controversy from 1995 through 2000 as environmental reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Her extensive Fox River reporting won national and state honors, including a national “Best of Gannett” award for specialty reporting in 1997; an enterprise reporting award from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association in 1997; beat, staff enterprise, and specialty reporting awards from Gannett in 1997, 1998, and 2000; and a spot news award from the Milwaukee Press Club in 1999. The Fox River stories were also honored by the local Green Bay community, earning the “Conservation of Natural Resources Award” from the Green Bay Mayor’s Beautification Committee and the “Clean Bay Backer Award” from the Remedial Action Plan Committee.
Campbell is also co-author of Beyond Earth Day: Fulfilling the Promise (University of Wisconsin Press, 2002) with the late Earth Day founder U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson. Her articles have appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Psychology Today and Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. She’s shared her passion for local newspapers as an adjunct journalism instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, and for the environment as a public speaker in classrooms and at Earth Day events.
After her newspaper career, Campbell championed Great Lakes protections, notably passage of the landmark Great Lakes Compact, as communications manager for the Chicago-based Alliance for the Great Lakes. In 2017 she branched out to focus on sustainable real estate, promoting energy efficiency in homes and working to raise the profile of sustainable homes nationally as a founding member of the National Association of REALTORS’ Sustainability Advisory Group.
Paper Valley, P. David Allen II and Susan Campbell 