Earl Hatley

Mr. Hatley is a co-founder of LEAD Agency, Inc., a grassroots organization in northeastern Oklahoma, and served as the Board President from 1997-2003.  LEAD’s original focus was the Tar Creek Superfund Site.  The Site is a forty square mile area of abandoned lead and zinc mines impacting the subsistence and cultural resources of the ten tribes located in the area.  LEAD Agency is predominantly of Native American membership.  LEAD Agency is a member of Waterkeeper Alliance, and since 2003, Mr. Hatley has served as the Grand Riverkeeper, patrolling the Grand River and feeder streams of the upper Grand River watershed.  

Mr. Hatley was appointed by two of Oklahoma’s Governors (Democrat & Republican) to serve on the Hazardous Waste Management Advisory Council for the Oklahoma Department of  Environmental Quality in March 2007, representing the state’s environmental community, and re-appointed in ‘09 and '11.  Mr. Hatley completed his third and final term in April 2014.  Since Oct. 2007, Mr. Hatley served on the Board of Directors for Oklahoma Sustainability Network from Oct. 2007-14, and currently serves (since 2002) on the Steering Committee for the Western Mining Action Network, including the Indigenous caucus.  WMAN serves organizations dealing with the impacts of hard rock mining in the US and Canada.  I Jan. 2021, Mr. Hatley was elected Co-Chair of WMAN and Chair of WMAN’s Indigenous Caucus.  In addition, Mr. Hatley, previously, served on the Regional Health Equity Board for EPA Region 6, which provides program initiatives of health and environmental health justice for OK, TX, AR, LA & NM's in low income and people of color communities, from Aug. 2011- '15.

 Mr. Hatley is a well-trained and experienced environmental organizer who utilizes his training and experience to serve as a consultant to tribal and non-tribal groups (non-profits & tribal governments).  He has served as an environmental consultant to Indian Tribes and Alaska Native Villages, as well as indigenous grassroots groups around the country.  Mr. Hatley’s work has included helping tribal governments to develop environmental programs, water and air quality monitoring projects, write quality control instruments, write grants, conduct culturally-based risk assessments, and conduct hazardous waste site investigations.  Mr. Hatley also serves as an organizing consultant to national and state-wide non-profit groups, including WMAN and the Indigenous Environmental Network.  He served as a consultant and co-leader on a $5 M grant as a partner with Harvard School of Public Health and LEAD Agency.  In this capacity he developed the Tribal Subcommittee of the grant’s Community Advisory Board.  He served as a consultant on another collaboration with LEAD and Harvard sampling mercury in fish and human subjects in the Grand Lake watershed.

Mr. Hatley was named the 2013 "River Hero" by a joint action of both the National River Network and Waterkeeper Alliance.  These two groups are the largest organizations working to protect rivers and water quality in North America.

Mr. Hatley was awarded the first-ever Carrie Dickerson Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in Oklahoma as an environmental activist on Earth Day in Tulsa 2018.

Mr. Hatley was awarded the prestigious Terry Backer Award (the second time it’s been bestowed) by Waterkeeper Alliance at their annual conference in June 2018, for his achievements as a Riverkeeper.

His degrees include, ABD:  Environmental Science Ph.D. Program, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, M.A.:  Political Science, Oklahoma State University,  Stillwater, and B.A.:  Human Development, Flaming Rainbow University/Westminister College, Fulton, MO and Tahlequah, OK.  Mr. Hatley is a Mentor in the   Prescott College off-campus degree program and served as Adjunct Faculty at Oklahoma State University-OKC, teaching courses on social ecology and environmental policy.  

Mr. Hatley has extensive research and grant management experience.  His Political Science training included conducting demographic research, developing qualitative survey techniques, and development of quantitative survey instruments.  He has utilized these techniques in the political and environmental science arenas, including cultural based risk assessments.  Mr. Hatley is proud of his Cherokee/Shawnee and Algonquin/Wendat/Micmaw First Nations heritage, he belongs to the Cherokee Long Hair Clan.