Lisa P. Jackson

Who is Lisa P. Jackson?

Lisa Perez Jackson is an American chemical engineer who served as the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency from 2009 to 2013. In May 2013, it was announced that Jackson would be joining Apple, Inc. as their environmental director.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Jackson is a graduate of Tulane University and Princeton University. She began working as a staff-level engineer for the Environmental Protection Agency in 1987; later moving to the EPA's regional office in New York City, where she spent the majority of her 16 year EPA career. She joined the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in 2002, working as the assistant commissioner of compliance and enforcement and as the assistant commissioner for land use management. In 2006, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine appointed Jackson the state's Commissioner of Environmental Protection. Jackson also briefly served as Corzine's Chief of Staff in late 2008.

On December 15, 2008, the President-elect Barack Obama nominated Jackson as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, she was confirmed by the Senate and took office on January 23, 2009. During her tenure, Jackson oversaw stricter fuel efficiency standards; the EPA's response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill; authorized carbon dioxide as a public health threat, granting the EPA authority to set new regulations regarding CO2 emissions; and laid out a failed plan to set stricter smog pollution limits by amending the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. In December 2012, Jackson announced she would be stepping down as EPA Administrator, a move which took effect on February 15, 2013; she was succeeded by Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe, who became Acting Administrator pending Senate confirmation of Gina McCarthy on July 18, 2013 as a permanent successor.