Following President Obama’s second inauguration, most news coverage has now shifted to the latest round of cabinet appointments. Whether it be Senator John Kerry’s likely succession of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, or the more controversial nomination of former Senator Chuck Hagel as the next Secretary of Defense, various appointments have garnered significantly more attention than the recent departure of EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. Jackson’s exit has even been referred to as a “non-event in Washington D.C.” While less attention is being paid to the search for the EPA’s next administrator, assistant administrators at the EPA recently announced the filling of another important agency position: Director of EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ).
Matthew Tejada, a Houston activist and Executive Director of Air Alliance Houston, has been chosen as the next Director of OEJ. Tejada previously worked at the Texas Public Interest Research Group and served in the Peace Corps. He has Doctorate and Masters degrees from the University of Oxford (UK), and attended the University of Texas at Austin as an undergraduate.
In a recent interview with Environmental Health News, Tejada hinted at the kind of Director he will be. His answers should leave EJ communities and activists excited and hopeful about his appointment. The new OEJ Director sees himself as “a very reasonable but effective advocate for environmental justice issues” and feels like he has “the guts to speak truth” in a way that will make people listen. We certainly hope he is right, and we wish the new OEJ Director luck as he joins the EPA. Now we also wait for President Obama to nominate Tejada’s new boss – the next Administrator of the EPA.
CUER Contributors
CUER fellow Henry Tranes is in his third year at CUNY Law School. He spent the 2012 summer interning with the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s Office of Environmental Justice in Long Island City. He graduated from SUNY Albany (cum laude), receiving a B.A. in Political Science while also minoring in Africana Studies. Both during college and since graduating, he has worked for two New York State Senators and developed an interest in policy work at the local and state levels. As a law student, Henry has become interested in the field of environmental law and environmental justice. To that end, he has written on home rule as a tool for municipalities to ban hydrofracking.
Henry grew up in Goshen, New York, in the Hudson Valley, giving him an appreciation for the environment from an early age. Outside of law school, his interests include politics, football, and traveling. Henry has visited seven countries in Europe and hopes to add to that total as often as he can. He currently lives in Manhattan with his girlfriend, Laura, and their Shepherd-Husky rescue dog, “Gorilla”.