Lewis A. McLeod, came to NTEC in June of 2006 from Region X, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where he was a Tribal Project Officer for the 9 North Western tribes in the state of Washington. Lewis has had several diversified careers to date. He is a member of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes located in North Western Montana on the Flathead Indian Reservation. He started his work history after graduation from Cottage Grove, Oregon High School in June of 1963. He enlisted in the US Marine Corps and went directly to MCRD San Diego, California. After three tours of duty in Viet-Nam and a total of seven years in the Corps he decided to get out and try civilian life, that didn’t work out for him. So, he enlisted in the US Air Force. After 15 & 1/2 years he earned his Military retirement and decided to go home to live & start a second career. He went to work for his Tribe in 1988 as a Tribal Air Quality Technician and Air Program Manager for the next 16 years. During those 16 years he got heavily involved in the Western Regional Air Partnership (WRAP) and convinced his tribal council that they needed to be a part of that organization to make sure they were involved in any regulating of Air Quality on their Reservation. This was the time he became familiar with how far behind tribes were in working with the EPA and the regulation of environmental programs. After gaining this understanding it became apparent that he needed to become more familiar with the EPA and its internal workings. So, he decided to go to work for the EPA as a Tribal Project Officer and learn how to better enable tribes to be in on the ground floor of environmental protection instead of after regulations were made and mandated. Lewis worked for the EPA from 2004 to 2006 when he accepted a position with NTEC as the “Tribal Western Regional Air Partnership” Director. He worked in that capacity until January 2008 when the EPA cooperative grant was discontinued and at that time was offered the current position he holds with NTEC.
Lewis has five children, 4 boys and 1 girl, which are all adults and a total of 7 grandchildren. Three of the most important facets of his life now are his grandchildren, fishing & hunting, and pretty much in that order. Loves what he does for NTEC and hopes to be able to do it for at least another 5 to 10 years. He can be reached at his home office by telephone, skype, fax or just go to see him in Pablo, Montana.
