Dr. Cushing Begins Term as SAF President

January 6, 2020



Bethesda, MD—On January 1, 2020, Tamara Cushing, PhD, began her one-year term as president of the Society of American Foresters (SAF). Founded in 1900 by Gifford Pinchot and headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, SAF is a national organization that represents and serves 11,000 forestry professionals in the United States. Dr. Cushing will continue serving on SAF’s Board of Directors for the next two years, including as immediate past president in 2021. Since joining SAF in 1994, Dr. Cushing served as chair of the House of Society Delegates, participated on several national committees including Forest Policy, Accreditation, and Diversity, and held various state and local positions. She was also awarded the Young Forester Leadership Award in 2011 and elected Fellow in 2017. 

Dr. Cushing is the Starker Chair of Private and Family Forestry at Oregon State University. Her responsibilities include extension, teaching and research tasks related to forest business, management and policy. As an expert in the area of taxation of forest land and products, Dr. Cushing delivers educational programs to forest landowners, foresters and accountants, and teaches an undergraduate course in forest economics and supervises graduate student research. She also serves as an advisor to the SAF student chapter and the logging sports team.

A graduate of the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in forest resources and Mississippi State University with a Master of Forest Economics and a Master of Taxation, Dr. Cushing worked at F&W Forestry Services as a forest economist for four years. She then earned a PhD in forest finance at the University of Georgia.  

Dr. Cushing lives in Albany, Oregon with her husband and two teenagers. She’s an avid college football fan (go Gators!) and enjoys participating in bowling leagues and traveling with her family.