Stephen A. Owens is President Barack Obama’s nominee to serve as Assistant Administrator for the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances in the Environmental Protection Agency
Owen previously served as director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality from January 2003 to January 2009, making him the longest serving Director in ADEQ’s history. As ADEQ Director, Owens chaired Arizona’s Climate Change Advisory Group, served as co-chair of the Western Climate Initiative and was Secretary of The Climate Registry. Among other key concerns, Owens made children’s environmental health a top priority for ADEQ and established an Office of Children’s Environmental Health at the department.
In September 2008, Owens was elected President of the Environmental Council of the States, the national state environmental agency directors association, serving until he left ADEQ.
From 1999-2002, Owens served as a member of the Joint Public Advisory Committee of the North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation. He also served as chief counsel and later as state director for then U.S. Senator Al Gore during 1985-88. From 1982-84, he served as counsel to the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology.
Owen graduated with honors from Brown University in 1978 and earned his law degree from Vanderbilt, where he was Editor in Chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review, in 1981.