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An Insider Look at the EPA is Focus of º£½ÇÂÒÂ×ÉçÇø’s Johnson Lecture

NOTE: DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

March 3, 2020 — Established nearly 50 years ago (December 2, 1970) to consolidate in one agency a variety of federal research, monitoring, standard-setting and enforcement activities to ensure environmental protection, the Environmental Protection Agency works to provide a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people.

On Tuesday, March 31, º£½ÇÂÒÂ×ÉçÇø will host Jeffery Robichaud, director of the EPA’s Region 7 Water Division, for an insider’s view of the history of environmental protection and the imperative for science to drive the next 50 years as part of the University’s fifth annual Johnson Family Lecture Series in Science. The talk will begin at 7 p.m. in the Jenkin and Barbara David Theater inside Alumni Hall on the University’s Parkville Campus. Admission to the lecture is free and open to the public.

Robichaud will reflect upon 50 years of environmental protection and advances since the creation of the EPA, his journey as a second generation scientist focused on protecting public health and the environment, and the importance of science in solving the nation’s complicated environmental challenges.

As director of the Region 7 Water Division, Robichaud leads a team that ensures drinking water is safe, restores and maintains watersheds and their aquatic ecosystems to protect human health, supports economic and recreational activities, and provide healthy habitat for fish, plants and wildlife. The Region 7 Water Division, based in Lenexa, Kan., supports the states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, as well as nine federally recognized American Indian tribes in the region in the implementation of numerous programs and directly implements portions of the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act.

Robichaud joined the EPA in 1998 as an engineer in the organization’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water in Washington, D.C., after three years with an environmental consulting firm. In 2001, he moved to the Kansas City area and has served as an engineer with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act’s Corrective Action Program and as a senior policy advisor to the regional administrator. Robichaud earned a Master of Science degree in engineering management from the University of Kansas and a Bachelor of Science degree in environmental systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

The Johnson Family Lecture Series in Science was established in 2016 to provide members of the community, as well as liberal arts and science majors, an opportunity to experience science in action and hear established scientists discuss their research. The lecture series was established by º£½ÇÂÒÂ×ÉçÇø alumnus George Johnson, ’63, Ph.D., who provided funding for the event. Johnson is professor emeritus at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.