Keynote Speaker

Dr. "Al" Armendariz; Regional Administrator (Region 6) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be the keynote speaker for the 2012 ERCC.

We are pleased to announce that this year's keynot speaker is "Al" Armendariz; Regional Administrator (Region 6) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Al Armendariz was appointed by President Obama on November 5, 2009, as the Regional Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 6, in Dallas. As Regional Administrator he is responsible for managing the Agency’s regional activities under the direction of EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. The region encompasses Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and 66 Tribal Nations.

Prior to his appointment, for eight years he was a professor in the Department of Environmental and Civil Engineering at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he received several outstanding faculty awards. For the past 15 years, Dr. Armendariz has worked in a variety of research and academic positions including, for a short time in 2002, in the Region 6 EPA offices.

Before joining SMU, he was a chemical engineer with Radian Corporation in North Carolina. During and after college he worked as a research assistant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Global Change Science at its Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratory in Massachusetts.

Throughout his career, Dr. Armendariz has spent countless hours volunteering his time to help the environment through various environmental groups and the Volunteer Center for North Texas. He has a proven track record of addressing complex environmental and public health challenges in everything from solid waste landfills to community and Tribal priorities.

Dr. Armendariz received his doctorate in Environmental Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Public Health where he was also selected as a Royster Society Fellow. He holds an M.E. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Florida. Al is a chemical engineer by training, with an undergraduate degree from MIT.

Al is a third generation Texan, descended from Mexican and Mexican-American grandparents who settled in the border city of El Paso. Born and raised in El Paso, he graduated from Coronado High School in 1988. He has also lived in Houston, Albuquerque and New Orleans. Al currently lives in Dallas with his wife Cynthia, a public school teacher in Irving ISD, and two sons, Ferris and Simon.

^{* Current as of November 2009}