Member Profile: Elizabeth Swain

Elizabeth Swain is President of Barton & Gingold, specializing in environmental permitting and communications. She is a registered professional forester and her consulting practice concentrates primarily on natural resource-related issues. She has been with the company since 1986.

Ms. Swain has extensive experience in managing complex public policy issues to achieve a successful outcome. Her work has focused on permitting clean energy projects- wind, hydro, natural gas-, and providing strategic consultation and community relations on electric transmission and pipeline projects, conservation easements, comprehensive planning, transportation projects, solid waste and Superfund. She also regularly assists clients with government and media relations. A member of the quasi-judicial Maine Land Use Regulation Commission from 1984-1992 and four-term Chair, she brings a thorough understanding of regulatory decision-making to each project.

Ms. Swain is Vice President of the Vinalhaven Land Trust, and also serves on the board of Maine Huts & Trails and E2-Tech. Prior to joining Barton & Gingold, she was the assistant director of the Northeast Regional Biomass Program and for five years led the wood fuel and forestry program at the Maine Audubon Society.

Elizabeth Swain received a Masters of Forestry from Yale University in 1983. She graduated from Hampshire College with a B.A. in Land Use Planning in 1976 and was a Special Student in Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.