Lisa P. Jackson

Lisa P. Jackson
Administrator of the EPA

Age 47

Birthplace Philadelphia; raised in New Orleans

Family Married, with two boys

Professional Jackson graduated summa cum laude from Tulane University’s school of chemical engineering after receiving a scholarship from Shell Oil Company; she later received a master’s in chemical engineering at Princeton University. She started working for the EPA in 1987 at the New York regional office and spent time in the federal Superfund remediation program. Her focus was on drafting hazardous waste clean-up regulation. She then joined the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in 2002 and became commissioner in 2006. She was set to be chief of staff for New Jersey governor Jon Corzine but was chosen by President Obama for the EPA position.

Viewpoint Jackson’s political career has received mixed reviews. She’s praised for being realistic yet still keeping the environment as her first priority. The biggest issue environmentalists have with her is that she is too politically minded. The director of the New Jersey Environmental Federation, Amy Goldsmith, estimates that Jackson sides with environmentalists 70 percent of the time but was still the most environmentally focused commissioner the New Jersey DEP had ever produced. Jackson has been criticized for the mismanagement of seven New Jersey’s 115 Superfund sites, though they had already become state problems before her appointment as commissioner.