Carol Browner

Carol Browner
Official portrait, 2010
Director of the Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy
In office January 22, 2009 – March 3, 2011
President	Barack Obama
Deputy	Heather Zichal
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office abolished
8th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
In office January 23, 1993 – January 20, 2001
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	William K. Reilly
Succeeded by	Christine Todd Whitman
Personal details
Born	Carol Martha Browner (1955-12-16) December 16, 1955 (age 68) Miami, Florida, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	Michael Podhorzer ​ (divorced)​ Thomas Downey ​ (m. 2007)​ [1]
Education	University of Florida (BA, JD)

Carol Martha Browner (born December 16, 1955) is an American lawyer, environmentalist, and businesswoman, who served as director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2011. Browner previously served as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the Clinton administration from 1993 to 2001. She currently works as a Senior Counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group, a global business strategy firm.

Browner grew up in Florida and graduated from the University of Florida and the University of Florida College of Law. After working for the Florida House of Representatives, she was employed by Citizen Action in Washington, D.C. She became a legislative assistant for Senators Lawton Chiles and Al Gore. Browner then headed the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation from 1991 to 1993, where she turned it into one of the most active departments in the state government.

She was the longest-serving administrator in the history of the EPA, staying through both terms of the Clinton presidency. During her tenure, she reorganized the agency's enforcement structure and oversaw two new programs designed to create flexible partnerships with industry as an alternative to traditional regulation. She started a successful program to deal with contaminated lands in urban areas. She took the lead within the administration in defending existing environmental laws and budgets and was the driving force behind a stringent tightening of air quality standards that led to a prolonged political and legal battle.

Afterward, Browner became a founding member of the Albright Group and Albright Capital Management in 2001. She also served on a number of boards of directors and committees dealing with environmental issues. Her director role in the Obama administration was sometimes informally referred to as the "Energy Czar" or "Climate Czar". Her efforts towards getting comprehensive climate and energy legislation passed in Congress came to no avail, but she assumed a prominent role in the federal government's response to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill during 2010. She left her position in 2011 and the job itself was abolished shortly thereafter. Following that she rejoined the merged Albright Stonebridge Group, continued being active in several boards of environmental organizations, joined the boards of some energy- and agriculture-related companies, and became an advocate for nuclear energy in response to the dangers of global warming.