Commentary

Staff Counsel

Prior to joining PEER, Colleen was an Assistant District Attorney for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office in New York. She has also worked, clerked, and interned for multiple government agencies and non-profits, including the United States Department of Justice, the Office of the New York State Attorney General, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Defenders of Wildlife. Colleen also volunteered as a Park Interpreter with the National Park Service at Theodore Roosevelt Island in Washington, DC. Colleen received her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was the Vice President of the Environmental Law Society and Senior Notes Editor for the Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law. She received her bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in International Affairs from The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Colleen enjoys backpacking and camping trips, playing board games, and reading mystery novels.

COMMENTARY | Congress Jeopardizes North Atlantic Right Whale Recovery 

by Colleen Zimmerman | January 9, 2023
Our elected officials and government agencies must do better to protect the North Atlantic right whale ...

COMMENTARY | Biden Strengthens Clean Water Rules

by Tim Whitehouse | January 5, 2023
The new regulations repeal a Trump-era rule, called the “Dirty Water Rule” by many, that left millions of acres of waterways unprotected from pollution ...

COMMENTARY | Park Service’s Inhumane Inertia

by Jeff Ruch | December 9, 2022
The Biden administration has left several disastrous Trump policies in place - from allowing inhumane hunting practices to not taking action on park crowding ...

COMMENTARY | The Hidden Dangers of Biosolids

by Monica Mercola | December 7, 2022
Biosolids are often marketed as "all-natural" but we don’t think about the pollutants that are transferred to produce from the fertilizers ...

COMMENTARY | Why This Mining Permit Should Fail

by Hudson Kingston | December 2, 2022
Should an agency's misbehavior invalidate their decisions? When it comes to mining permits in Minnesota, PEER thinks so ...

Park Service Lack of Transparency Created Its Huge FOIA Backlog

by Jeff Ruch | November 18, 2022
The National Park Service is drowning in FOIA requests - the backlog has nearly doubled during the past two years ...