The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on August 22, 2019, the appointment of Dennis Deziel as Regional Administrator for Region 1.  Mr. Deziel will oversee environmental protection efforts in the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut and in ten Tribal Nations.  

According to EPA, Mr. Deziel has spent much of his life working in public service in Washington, D.C.  He most recently worked at Dow as the Director of Federal Government Affairs, where he focused on environment, energy, and regulatory affairs issues.  Prior to entering private industry, Mr. Deziel served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Environmental Management at the U.S. Department of Energy from 2012 to 2014, leading budget, policy, and planning development for the largest environmental cleanup program in the United States.  He also managed chemical security issues at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from 2004 to 2010, and prior to that, he served as a policy advisor for the Council for Environmental Quality from 2002 to 2004.  EPA notes that Mr. Deziel began his career working at EPA in the pesticides and chemicals program.