Kathleen Williams

Kathleen Williams was the 2018 Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives for Montana, losing to incumbent Greg Gianforte. She is a water conservation expert and former member of the Montana House of Representatives.

Williams was born on February 16, 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in resource economics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1983 and a Master of Science in recreation resources from Colorado State University. She worked for the United States Forest Service as well as several private conservation and recreation organizations in the west.

From 1995 to 1999, she was lead staffer at the Environmental Quality Council, a bipartisan committee of the Montana Legislature, a position that included serving as a staff member of the Montana House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources. From 1999 to 2003, she served as water program manager with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. In 2004, she became executive director of the Instream Flow Council, a nonprofit association of provincial, state and territorial fish and wildlife agencies in the United States and Canada. Williams served in the Montana House of Representatives from 2011 to 2016. In 2014, she also became an associate director for water policy issues at the Western Landowners Alliance.