Atlanta Mayor M. Kasim Reed will serve as the keynote speaker for FAMU’s 9 a.m. Spring Commencement ceremony and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa P. Jackson will serve as the 2 p.m. speaker. The ceremonies are scheduled for Saturday, April 30 in the Alfred Lawson Jr. Multipurpose Center and Teaching Gymnasium. Reed was elected in December 2009 as Atlanta’s 59th mayor. He is a former partner with the international law firm Holland & Knight LLP in Atlanta. After serving two terms as the state representative for House District 52, he was elected to the Georgia State Senate in November 2002.
During his term in the Georgia State Senate, he was a member of the Senate Judiciary, Higher Education, Transportation, Ethics, and the State and Local Government Committees. He served as the campaign manager for Atlanta’s former Mayor Shirley Franklin in her successful effort to become the first female mayor of the City of Atlanta, and then served as co-chairman of Shirley Franklin’s Transition Team. He earned both his B.A. and J.D. degrees from Howard University.
Jackson leads EPA’s efforts to protect the health and environment for all Americans. She and a staff of more than 17,000 professionals are working across the nation to usher in a green economy, addressing health threats from toxins and pollution and renewing public trust in EPA’s work. Jackson is the first African American to serve as EPA administrator. In her first days in the position, she pledged to review critical decisions on auto emissions, initiated the monitoring of toxic air pollution around public schools and proposed new, targeted greenhouse gas reporting requirements.
Jackson has made it a priority to focus on vulnerable groups including children, the elderly and low-income communities that are particularly susceptible to environmental and health threats. In addressing these and other issues, she has promised all stakeholders a place at the decision-making table.
Before becoming EPA’s administrator, Jackson served as chief-of-staff to New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine and commissioner of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Prior to joining DEP, she worked for 16 years as an employee of the U.S. EPA. She graduated summa cum laude from Tulane University and earned a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University.