University of Michigan News Service – UM News

Former EPA Administrator Carol Browner to speak in Ann Arbor

EDITORS: To schedule an advance interview, telephone Meredith Walker, (202) 842-7222. For an interview following Browner’s lecture, contact Alicia Farmer, (734) 764-6453.

ANN ARBOR—Carol Browner, former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, will speak on “Public Health and Environmental Protection in the 21st Century” on Feb. 19 at 4 p.m. in the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater on the University of Michigan campus. The lecture is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a reception in the theater lobby.

Browner, who served as EPA head from 1993 to 2001, is the longest serving administrator in the history of the agency. During those seven years she partnered with business leaders, community advocates, and all levels of government to promote common sense, cost-effective solutions to the nation’s most pressing environmental and public health challenges.

She is known as the creator of the Brownfields program to clean up and redevelop abandoned, contaminated urban properties. Since its creation, Brownfields has leveraged more than $1 billion in public and private funds for redevelopment, created thousands of new jobs, and helped hundreds of communities bring idle properties back to productive use.

During her two days in Ann Arbor, Browner also will meet with faculty, graduate students, and community environmental leaders. Her visit is sponsored by the U-M’s School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) and the new Program in the Environment, a joint undergraduate degree program of SNRE and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. For more information about this or other scheduled events, contact Alicia Farmer at (734) 763-4928, farmeral@umich.edu.