Peter McAvoy

Peter McAvoy serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences. He has held a number of positions with the university, including as a senior fellow for law and the environment. Under the sponsorship of the Brico Fund, a philanthropic organization based in Milwaukee, McAvoy worked with the university’s chancellor and senior faculty at the School of Freshwater Sciences to establish the Center for Water Policy and has taught a water law course at the school. He works with partners from the private sector, government and the academic community to shape new water resource policies and programs for Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Region, including the effective implementation of the landmark Great Lakes Compact.

During his career McAvoy has held a number of senior management and consulting positions with federal, state and local governments and the private sector on air, land and water quality issues and has served on numerous advisory committees and boards. He served as vice president of the Sixteenth Street Community Health Center’s Department of Environmental Health, administering programs for reducing the health risks for children who are exposed to environmental hazards and under his leadership the health center was instrumental in developing public and private sector partnerships that are revitalizing Milwaukee’s Menomonee River Valley and the Kinnickinnic River Corridor.

Earlier in his career, McAvoy was the Great Lakes and Pacific regional administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s U.S. Coastal Management Program. He served on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency/State Department’s international negotiating team that resulted in major revisions in the U.S. / Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, for which he received EPA’s Bronze Medal for his technical management and legal support during the negotiations. He also served as the governor of Wisconsin’s lead person on developing acid rain, protections for the Great Lakes and soil conservation legislation in the 1980s.