Hannah Davidson AM 1989

As a resident of Portland, Oregon, Hannah Davidson, AM’89 lives in one of the country’s most environmentally conscious cities—perfect for her personal interests and her work at the Western Rivers Conservancy.

“Portland is just a beautiful place to live. It’s a very green city and a great place if you’re in the environmental field,” she said. “I get to spend a lot of time outdoors and see up close the importance of rivers to the health of ecosystems and the impact on plants and animals, particularly salmon.”

Davidson has shaped a career out of her interests in the environment and the nonprofit world, now serving as the Conservancy’s director of finance and administration. The organization protects river ecosystems in the western United States by identifying key riverlands and negotiating purchases with willing sellers—whether an individual, private company, or Native American tribe. Although the Conservancy buys the land, it quickly transfers it to public or private agencies—such as a state parks department, the Forest Service, or the Bureau of Land Management—for conservation and management, including appropriate public access for fishing, hiking, and floating.

In her role, Davidson ensures the deals’ financing and that the organization has enough cash on hand for unexpected opportunities. Additionally, she is responsible for the overall financial soundness of the organization, which means creating budgets, managing cash flow, and overseeing investments among other tasks. The Conservancy usually completes about 10 purchases a year, although that number is growing as it has recently opened an office in Montana. While some projects are small, others are multi-million dollar ventures that take years to plan and complete.

“There’s always a unique twist to every transaction that requires a creative solution,” said Davidson. Sometimes public funding gets delayed forcing her to find bridge financing without jeopardizing other projects. She continued, “These transactions can get very complicated, and it is my job to translate the outcome in a way that is accessible to board members and the funding community.”

Davidson has spent most of her career in the nonprofit sector and early on pursued a master’s degree in policy because it seemed like the “MBA of the nonprofit sector.” Since then, she has worked in a variety of capacities including in development, communications, programming, and as an executive director.

“It’s the organization that’s so terrific,” she said of why she settled on finance and administration. “And I really like the challenges presented by the financial complexity inherent in this work.”

Reflecting on her time at the Harris School, Davidson recalled classes on public-private partnerships with lessons that are still relevant in her current position. “I was recently looking at some of my books from [a course on] policy implementation and how differently the public and private sector can think,” she recalled. “The goal is the same, but how they get there can be so different.”

Davidson said she encounters the same challenges in dealing with the various parties involved in buying and selling riverlands—particularly when dealing with the conservation language of property titles, ensuring funding for specific projects, and working with the slower pace of large institutions. “These public-private partnerships are the key to our work, cooperating to secure the health of whole ecosystems. Finding the tools to communicate with willing partners is one of the critical roles that the Conservancy provides.

“My whole position here is intellectually challenging in the finance sense, but I also get so much out of it personally,” she said. “I feel really lucky to have a satisfying job and know that the benefits will impact people and the environment for generations to come.”