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Home / Washington Business - July/August 2008 / Profile: Lori Blau, AWB Board Member, Former Chair, Environmental Affairs Council |
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Profile: Lori Blau, AWB Board Member, Former Chair, Environmental Affairs Council |
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Sometimes the boldest move is the one made by the people we least expect. This is especially true of Lori Blau, owner of Ponderay Newsprint in tiny Usk, Wash. A longtime AWB board member and head of the association’s Environmental Affairs Council, this spring Blau announced her plans to return to school to pursue her dream of becoming a junior high school math teacher.
It came to a big surprise to everyone at AWB. At the Spring Board Meeting in Spokane this May, everyone was shocked and surprised to see Lori saying goodbye as she looked forward to her new life — first as a student, then as a teacher.
Above all else, the goodbye was bittersweet. Good people like Lori are hard to find.
Born in Deer Park and raised in Newport, Blau grew up in a family of educators. “I kind of grew up in the schools,” she said. After graduating from Newport High School, she went on to Washington State University in Pullman and received a degree in chemical engineering. After that, she received a master’s in engineering management, this time from Washington State University in Spokane.
After college, Blau worked at a chemical plant for two years and an oil refinery for one year before going to work at a new mill near where she grew up: Ponderay Newsprint Co. “I was employee number 16,” said Blau. “They were still building the mill — driving piles near our office for months on end — while we were working in this trailer on the site.”
Blau was involved with the new plant every step of the way. She served as a jack-of-all-trades and worked on the initial permitting of the plant. Later, she coordinated the startup of the plant’s water treatment facility. The list goes on and on. When Ponderay needed something done, she was one of the first people called upon.
“Lori is an amazing person and it’s really sad to see her go,” said Scott Campbell, ESH coordinator at Ponderay Newsprint. “She is the first out of the original group to be leaving, which makes it a little hard. We really hope she does well in her new career.”
In addition to her duties at Ponderay, Blau has been an active member of AWB. For the past 16 years she served as head of AWB’s Environmental Affairs Council. “AWB is very effective at pulling together different interests,” said Blau. “There is lot of integrity within the organization. For a business like Ponderay, we don’t have resources to have someone in Olympia. AWB allows us to get involved, find out what is happening that might affect our company and work with other businesses and groups to address what is going on in Olympia.”
“People like Lori Blau are the backbone of AWB,” said Don Brunell, president of AWB. “She is not only a great person, but one of those people who always gave more to AWB than she received. She will be an exceptional teacher and we wish her the very best.”
Why such a bold step toward education?
“After 25 years in manufacturing, I was ready for something different,” said Blau. “I’ve thought about it several times in the past, but everything just seemed to fall into place.”
Less than a week after the May board meeting in Spokane, Blau stepped onto the campus of Whitworth University and started the school’s master’s in teaching program. So far, everything has been going well.
“It’s all been a little bit overwhelming, yet it’s been really interesting and fun.”
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