Maryanne Bach
Great Plains Regional Director

Maryanne Bach is the Director of the Bureau of Reclamation's Great Plains Region, consisting of all of the States of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma and most of Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. She is located in Billings, Montana, and is responsible for all Reclamation program activities in the Great Plains Region.

Dr. Bach began her Federal career with the legislative branch, having served 8 years as a staff member on the Committee for Science, Space and Technology within the U.S. House of Representatives. The Committee has jurisdiction over non-defense Federal research and development.She occupied several senior staff positions with program and budget oversight for the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST), White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and also served as liaison to the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and several professional/technical societies.

In 1989, Dr. Bach joined the executive branch; she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Director of Program Analysis, and Special Assistant to the Secretary for Policy, Department of the Interior. During her tenure at the Department of the Interior, she also served a 15-month appointment as Assistant Director in the White House OSTP.

She joined the Bureau of Reclamation in 1992, and from 1994-1996, Ms. Bach served as the Deputy Regional Director for the Great Plains Region of the Bureau of Reclamation. She was the Assistant Director for Policy of Reclamation's Program Analysis Office and the agency's Drought Coordinator, stationed in Denver, Colorado, from 1996-1998.

Dr. Bach received her B.S. degree (cum laude) in Biology from Providence College, Rhode Island; M.S. in Botany and Plant Ecology (magna cum laude) from Iowa State University; and an Honorary Doctorate in Public Service from Providence College in 1998. In 1992 she received the Iowa State University Distinguished Young Alumni Award. Dr. Bach is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Phi Sigma Tau and Phi Kappa Phi.

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