PANELIST

Judith Enck

Judith Enck

Administrator for EPA’s Region 2 Office in New York

On November 5, 2009, Judith Enck was appointed Regional Administrator of Region 2 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by President Barack Obama. Previously, she was Deputy Secretary for the Environment in the New York State Governor's Office. As Regional Administrator, Judith's responsibilities are wide-ranging. In cooperation with state and regional authorities in New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and eight federally recognized Indian Nations, she administers federal programs governing air and water pollution, industrial discharges, toxic substances, pesticides, protection of streams, lakes and the ocean, solid and hazardous wastes, the cleanup of chemical spills and abandoned hazardous waste sites, and much more.

Judith is responsible for managing a staff of about 900 and overseeing an annual budget of approximately $700 million. In her prior position, she was responsible for policies and operations of New York State’s environmental protection agencies including the Department of Environmental Conservation, Office of Parks, Adirondack Park Agency, Agriculture and Markets, Department of State and others.

Judith previously served for eight years as a policy advisor to the New York State Attorney General. Prior to that, she was Senior Environmental Associate with the New York Public Interest Research Group. She also served as the Executive Director of Environmental Advocates of New York, a non-profit government watchdog organization. She is a past President of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, former Executive Director of the Non-Profit Resource Center and a designer of her town’s recycling program. She worked with the New York State Legislature to pass a number of the state’s most far reaching environmental laws including those addressing acid rain, toxics, pesticides, recycling, energy conservation and environmental funding.

Her accomplishments have been recognized with professional awards from the Attorney General’s Office, the Sierra Club, Center for Women in Government, Citizen Action, the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy at the University of Albany and others.
Judith was raised in the Catskill Mountains and is a graduate of the College of St. Rose in Albany, New York, which recently recognized her as a Distinguished Alumni. She is married and has a grown son, and splits her time between Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn and rural Rensselaer County, New York.

event reference: