Obama Names Armendariz as Region 6 Chief
President Barack Obama has selected Alfredo “Al” Armendariz, Ph.D., to be the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regional administrator for Region 6, which is based in Dallas. Region 6 encompasses Louisiana, Arkansas, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and 66 Tribal Nations.
"I look forward to working closely with Al Armendariz on the range of urgent environmental issues we face, in Region 6 and across the nation," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "At this moment of great challenge and even greater opportunity, I'm thrilled that Al will be part of our leadership team at EPA. He will certainly play an instrumental role in our agency's mission to protect our health and the environment."
Regional administrators manage EPA’s regional activities under the direction of the agency administrator. They promote state and local environmental protection efforts and serve as a liaison to state and local government officials. Regional administrators are tasked with ensuring EPA's efforts to address the environmental crises of today are rooted in three fundamental values: science-based policies and programs, adherence to the rule of law, and transparency.
Armendariz is an associate professor at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, where he has taught environmental and civil engineering. For the past 15 years, Armendariz has worked in a variety of research and academic positions and has published several research papers. After college, he worked as a research assistant at the MIT Center for Global Change Science at their Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratory in Massachusetts. He later joined Radian Corporation in North Carolina as a chemical engineer and in 2002, he joined the faculty at SMU and also spent a summer on special assignment to EPA’s Dallas office as an environmental scientist.
At SMU, he received several outstanding faculty awards and was selected as a Royster Society Fellow at the University of North Carolina. Armendariz received his doctorate in environmental engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.