Duggan Flanakin currently serves as Environmental Program Officer with the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, a Washington-based environment and development organization whose mission is to enhance the fruitfulness of the Earth and all of its inhabitants. His responsibilities include development and oversight of the organization’s Social Entrepreneurship and Free-Market Environmentalism Demonstration (SEFED) program and providing oversight for the affiliated organization, Collegians For A Constructive Tomorrow.

Mr. Flanakin holds a B.A. in History from Louisiana State University and a M.A. in Public Policy from Regent University. He began his career in 1966 as an editor of scientific and technical publications for the Bureau of Mines, U.S. Department of the Interior which was once the nation’s chief sponsor of basic scientific research. This was long before many Bureau functions were transferred to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Beginning in 1989, Mr. Flanakin was associated with Environmental Compliance Reporter, Inc., where he began his focus on the Texas environmental regulatory universe. From 1996 through 2005, Mr. Flanakin edited and published EI NEWS and Compliance Report, a newsletter that reviewed rulemaking, permitting, enforcement and policy decisions at Texas state agencies with jurisdiction over human health and the environment.

From 1993 through 1996, Mr. Flanakin also served as a Senior Fellow with Texas Public Policy Foundation, for whom he wrote the definitive work on the creation of the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (later the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality), "Texas Creates an Environmental Super Agency: Will Bigger Be Better?" In this report, Mr. Flanakin traced the history of environmental regulation in Texas through its many legislatively created entities over several decades, and made several recommendations, many since implemented, regarding ways the new agency could ensure its success.

In 1995, Mr. Flanakin was asked to serve on the Texas State Environmental Science Textbook Committee. Building on that experience, Mr. Flanakin in May 1996 published his report, "Sound Science or Pseudo Science: The Future of Environmental Education in Texas." The report traced the history of natural resource education in the Lone Star State and was widely accepted thereby providing a pathway for consensus on this controversial issue. This led Mr. Flanakin to work with state agencies, corporations, academic institutions, and non-profit institutions to sponsor a statewide conference on environmental education. At that event, held in April 1997, state representative Warren Chisum (R-Pampa), Chairman of the House Committee on Environmental Regulation, made commitments that led to the 1999 legislation creating the Texas Environmental Education Partnership Fund Board, which is appointed by the Governor.

In 1998, Mr. Flanakin began his relationship with CFACT by authoring a briefing paper, "EPA’s Relations with the States: Top-Down Commander or Managing Partner?" This report, built on his experience with state-federal relations on environmental policy implementation, urged a fundamental transformation in the way our nation regulates the environment through greater participation at the federal level by those with state regulatory experience and an improved accountability system.