Kimbell was raised in New England, where she spent her formative years hiking, fishing, and camping in the
White Mountain National Forest. She received a bachelor's degree in forest management from the
University of Vermont in 1974 and later a master's degree in forest engineering from
Oregon State University. She worked as a seasonal employee before beginning her federal forestry career in 1974 with the
Bureau of Land Management in
Medford, Oregon. She then joined the Forest Service as a pre-sale forester in
Kodiak,
Alaska in 1977. She next worked in Oregon as a
logging engineer and then a district planner. She served as a district ranger in
Kettle Falls, Washington for the
Colville National Forest from 1985 to 1988, and for the
Wallowa–Whitman National Forest in
La Grande, Oregon, from 1988 to 1991. She also served as forest supervisor of the
Tongass National Forest in Alaska from 1992 to 1997 and the
Bighorn National Forest in
Wyoming from 1997 to 1999. From 1999 to 2002, Kimbell was the forest supervisor for the
Pike and
San Isabel National Forests and the
Comanche National Grassland in
Colorado, as well as the
Cimarron National Grassland in
Kansas. In May 2002, Kimbell became the Associate Deputy Chief for the National Forest System lands in the Forest Service's main office in Washington, D.C. During her tenure as Associate Deputy Chief, Kimbell's leadership was instrumental in carrying out the
Healthy Forests Initiative and in the drafting of the
Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003. In December 2003, Kimbell was named as the Regional Forester for the Northern Region located in
Missoula, Montana. She served as Chief of the
United States Forest Service on February 5, 2007 until July 2, 2009. Kimbell is a member of the
Society of American Foresters. Kimbell is currently on the board of directors of Kids4Trees and is its senior advisor . == References ==