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  • My name is Lisa Jackson. I was at Princeton from '83 to '86. I got my Master's in Chemical

  • Engineering, and now I serve as the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection

  • Agency. My engineering background is extremely important to the job I do every day. It gives

  • me a different perspective from others. Engineering is about problem solving. A lot of the issues

  • we deal with here at EPA are technical in nature. And one of the things I said from

  • day one is that our entire work has to be based on the best science we can muster from

  • the American people. Probably the biggest adjustment has been the move and the pace

  • of work here in Washington. It's great because there's a huge expectation that we're going

  • to bring this agency back. That we're going to restore EPA to its place as the protector

  • of air, water and land. But that means a huge agenda. And so we're working awful hard here.

  • You know, a little bit later today I'll be speaking to students -- high school students

  • in an organization called Jack and Jill. They are African American kids and they're coming

  • to D.C. as part of a leadership program. It's so important for us at EPA to build and continue

  • to build our recognition of our mission with youth. The youth have always cared about environment

  • and pushed our issues, and this generation is all about being green, and we want to encourage

  • them. I speak about the devastation for America in Katrina often. My mom lost her home. She's

  • actually sold what's left of it back to the state of Louisiana and moved up to Ocean City.

  • Katrina was not only a tragedy; it was an environmental catastrophe as well. And I remind

  • people that when those wetlands were being torn up, the people who suffered most from

  • the damage in the low-lying areas of the city who happened to be people of color, had nothing

  • to do with the decisions made on those wetlands. So making gumbo and making Washington policy.

  • Gumbo, of course, even the word is all about a mixture, and bringing together these ingredients

  • and letting them simmer, and coming out with something really good. And obviously policy

  • and politics is very much the same thing. If we're going to be successful in environmental

  • policy, it's about bringing all the people who care about it, all the stakeholders we

  • call, together and coming out with the best solution. You know my time at Princeton in

  • the Engineering School certainly influenced where I am today. At that point, I worked

  • on environmental issues. And Princeton had a history of being involved in some of the

  • first environmental studies that were done up in Woburn, Mass. on groundwater. And I

  • worked with folks who did that research. It certainly influenced and enhanced my interest

  • in the environmental field. My name is Lisa Jackson and I'm a Princeton engineer.

My name is Lisa Jackson. I was at Princeton from '83 to '86. I got my Master's in Chemical

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