Commencement Speaker – Willamette College

Chuck Sams

Oregon’s Council Member on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council

Charles “Chuck” Sams III served as the 19th director of the National Park Service from 2022 to 2025 and was the first Native American to serve in that position. In that role, Sams championed initiatives to expand equitable access to public lands, deepen and expand tribal co-management, and strengthen climate resilience across the country’s most treasured landscapes.

Sams brings more than 35 years of professional experience and has occupied many important leadership positions. Currently, he is Oregon’s Council Member on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, serves as Oregon Tribes Scholar in Residence, and is a Senior Fellow with the Native Environmental Sovereignty Project at the University of Oregon’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center. He is also the inaugural Director of Indigenous Programs at Yale’s Center for Environmental Justice and lectures at Yale’s Environmental School.

A U.S. Navy veteran, Sams served as an intelligence specialist, laying the groundwork for a foundation of leadership and strategic insight that has informed his work across multiple sectors. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a focus on Management, Communications, and Leadership from Concordia University and a Master of Legal Studies in Indigenous Peoples Law from the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

Chuck holds several personal and professional honors, including the U.S. President’s Service Medal for work in the Environmental Field from the Points of Light Foundation, the Walter T. Cox Award from Clemson University’s Institute for Parks, and honorary doctorates in Humane Letters from Portland State University and Whitman College.

An enrolled member of the Cayuse and Walla Walla of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Sams has long worked to advance tribal sovereignty, natural resource management, education, and cultural revitalization.