New Orleans native Lisa P. Jackson is administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She is the first African-American to serve the post. She started her career working for the EPA’s Superfund program, a system for cleaning up abandoned hazardous waste sites, industrial dumping grounds, or other areas deemed too polluted to live or work. She moved up the ladder quickly, eventually running the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Agency before being asked by the Obama administration to lead the EPA.

<i>This video was presented as part of the 2012 World Science Festival program, Pioneers in Science, an interactive program that gives high school students from around the world rare and intimate access to Nobel Laureates, presidential advisors, and other trailblazing scientists.

Recorded June 2012; Posted June 2012