About EPA
About the Associate Administrator for Homeland Security
Deborah Dietrich
Deborah Dietrich currently serves as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Associate Administrator for Homeland Security. In that role, she coordinates homeland security policy across the agency, and leads EPA's planning, prevention, preparedness and emergency response efforts. Deborah advises the Administrator and other senior EPA leaders on national security and intelligence issues, and is the principal homeland security liaison to the U.S. intelligence community, the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies.
Prior to this appointment, she was the Director for the Office of Emergency Management in the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. She served in that position from July 2002 through January 2010. As Office Director, she held several positions of leadership including Agency Emergency Coordinator and Chair of the National Incident Coordination Team, a multi-office team that coordinates EPA's activities during national and international environmental incidents. She also chaired the National Response Team, an organization of sixteen federal agencies that coordinates federal planning, preparedness, and response actions. During her tenure, Deborah led efforts to improve EPA's overall response readiness for major catastrophic incidents and played a key leadership role in the Agency's response to Hurricane Katrina.
From 1995 until 2002, Ms. Dietrich headed the Office of Resources Management and Administration in EPA's Office of Research and Development. From 1986 through 1995 she held a variety of positions in the Superfund Program, including Director of the Emergency Response Program. Earlier in her career she spent ten years at the Department of Energy where she held several positions in the management and budget fields. Ms. Dietrich has a Bachelor Degree from the University of Maryland in business and another from Salisbury University