Six women tackle a variety of roles at EPA
This week, Women of Washington hosts Gigi Schumm and Aileen Black go on location to the EPA. They interview six women in different roles to understand what it's...
Listen to Women of Washington interview Bridget Williams, Benita Best-Wong, Cynthia Giles, Lorie Schmidt, Joann Chase and Tara O’Hare of the EPA
This week, Women of Washington hosts Gigi Schumm and Aileen Black go on location to the EPA. They interview six women in different roles to understand what it’s like to be a woman working for the EPA.
First, Bridget Williams, outreach lead for the EPA’s Safer Choice program, explains how we can get more people graduating in STEM fields. She said the most important thing is “supporting girls and boys at a young age, and helping them see that science is fun. It’s not scary. Chemicals seem scary, but everything is made out of chemicals. The water we drink is a chemical, air, sugar — our food, and it’s not scary. Chemicals can be fun, they can be dangerous, and finding safer ones is really important.”
Next, Benita Best-Wong, director of the Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds, gives her advice to women on being confident and taking risks. “Nothing is impossible,” she said.
“Being an immigrant to the country, I started out first of all with a very strong accent that I had to overcome, and the other thing I’ve had to deal with … is being the only African American female in a variety of situations,” Best-Wong said. “You can’t really let that stop you. You have to be willing to take chances, you have to be willing to take risks, and you have to listen to that little voice inside of you that tells you you can do it.”
Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator, Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, shares how modern technology can help with enforcement and compliance of environmental regulations.
“If companies can know in real time about pollution problems as they’re developing, they can take steps to fix them right away,” Giles said. “And that’s good for the public, because it protects them from being exposed to pollution, and it’s good for the company because it allows them to get out ahead of the problem before it gets too serious.”
Lorie Schmidt, associate general counsel at the Office of Air and Radiation, explains why she chose to work as a counsel for the EPA instead of taking a job at a private law firm.
“I love being outdoors,” she said. “I love natural beauty. And one of the things I love about working at EPA is that I get to play a role. It’s a small role, but I get to play a role in protecting that natural beauty for future generations.”
Joann Chase, director of the American Indian Environmental Office talks about the history of relations between the EPA and American Indians.
“This is an agency that was the first in the federal government to come up with a policy designed to advance the government to government relationship with tribes,” she said. “In my career, I’ve done a lot of things, and you could have never told me that I would be working for the federal government. But because EPA has this history, it’s been a pretty wonderful four years to come here and work in an environment where tribal issues are clearly important.”
Women of Washington also talked to Tara O’Hare, implementation and commercial outreach lead for the EPA’s WaterSense Program. O’Hare also works on the H2Otel Challenge and Fix A Leak.
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