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Judith E. Ayres
Biography
[EPA press release - November 16, 1983]
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator today named Judith E. Ayres, 38, an energy and environmental consultant and former Department of the Interior employee, as regional administrator of EPA's Region 9, headquartered in San Francisco.
Ms. Ayres will head a staff of 450 and be responsible for the management of federal environmental programs in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and the Pacific Islands of Guam, American Samoa, Northern Marianas, and the Trust Territories.
"Judith brings to this position a background of exceptional breadth and depth in the environmental field," Ruckelshaus said. "She has worked in many different and challenging environmental jobs, and this experience should serve her and the agency well in dealing with the environmental problems of this large and diverse region."
Ms. Ayres has operated her own consulting organization in San Francisco since 1978, which has been concerned with environmental program planning, natural resources economics, environmental mediation, marine policy, and the analysis of environmental legislation and regulations.
From 1971 to 1978, Ms. Ayres held various positions with the Department of the Interior. They included serving on the personal staff of former Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton in the capacity of speech writer, an assignment with the Joint Federal State Land Use Planing Commission in Anchorage as Communications Director, and head of the Public Affairs Office of the National Park Service in Alaska. Ms. Ayres also served in Washington, D.C. as legislative liaison for the National Park Service.
Ms. Ayres served on the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council advisory committee from 1976-77, and has lectured at national and international conferences on natural resources management.
She was awarded her bachelor of arts degree in zoology and physiology and an equivalent degree in English from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1966. In 1967, Ms. Ayres attended Leeds University in Wakefield, England, where she did graduate work in archaeology. The following year, she attended the International Christian University in Tokyo, where she pursued graduate studies in Japanese art, politics and religion. In 1980, she earned her Master of Public Administration degree at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Ms. Ayres enjoys a variety of interests including classical music, rowing, skiing, and scuba diving. She and her husband, John W. Burke III, an attorney, and their daughter, live in the San Francisco Bay area.