Speakers

Hilary Franz is President and CEO of American Forests, where she leads nationwide efforts to reduce catastrophic wildfires, restore public, private, and Tribal forestlands, and build healthier, more resilient communities across the United States.

Prior to joining American Forests, Hilary served as Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands (2017–2025), overseeing the state’s wildfire response and managing six million acres of forest, aquatic, agricultural, and commercial lands. In this role, she led a historic transformation of Washington’s wildfire strategy, shifting from reactive suppression to a proactive prevention, preparedness, and landscape and community resilience.  As a result, 95% of wildfires over the last five years were contained to 10 acres or less, significantly reducing risk to communities, landscapes, watersheds, and critical infrastructure.

In 2017, Hilary developed Washington’s first Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience Plan, establishing a bold goal to restore 1.25 million acres of federal, state, private, and Tribal forestlands to reduce wildfire severity. Under her leadership, 1 million acres were restored in just seven years, putting the state on track to achieve its 20-year wildfire resilience goals in half the time. She also secured nine-figure investments from state and federal sources to support wildfire prevention, forest restoration, emergency response capacity, and community resilience.

Throughout her career, Hilary has championed science-based natural resource management, climate mitigation and adaption, cross-jurisdictional collaboration, and investments in workforce, new technologies, and critical infrastructure. With nearly three decades of experience, she is nationally and internationally recognized for her leadership in wildfire response and prevention, forest and landscape-scale restoration, and climate mitigation and adaption.

Hilary holds a Bachelor’s degree from Smith College and a Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law.