Director of the Office of Wildland Fire
Department of the Interior
United States

Bryan has broad experience leading Forestry, Wildland Fire, and Tribal programs across DOI, BIA, and USDA. His federal government career has spanned nearly 20 years, beginning with service on the Helena Interagency Hotshot Crew for the USFS in Montana, and then as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal working in both community forestry and rural development. Bryan has supervised numerous timber operations as a timber sale officer on the Yakama Reservation as well as a layout forester on the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. Bryan has also served in leadership capacities internationally in Tanzania, Mexico, Brazil, and Australia for both DOI and USFS. He has served in 2 additional SES natural resources management leadership positions including; the Deputy Bureau Director – Office of Trust Services in the Bureau of Indian Affairs from 2011-2014, and Director of Forest Management in the USDA Forest Service from 2014 - 2016. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, he spent his school years in the Midwest in Whitewater, Wisconsin and Peoria, Illinois. Mr. Rice holds a Bachelor of Science – Forestry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne and Master of Business Administration from the University of Alaska – Southeast, focusing on rural development and transportation systems. He is a licensed pilot, and enjoys time outside hunting and fishing