Directory of fellows
David A. Ullrich
New Lenox,
Illinois
Region 5 IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, and WI
DAVID A. ULLRICH
Upon seeing a picture of the Cuyahoga River on fire in December 1969 in my last year of undergraduate school at Dartmouth College, I decided I wanted to be part of the effort to stop the serious contamination of the environment and restore it to a healthy, sustainable level. Over 50 years later, I am still at it. After a successful high school career in Wausau, Wisconsin where I received awards as the most distinguished male graduate and top athlete, I went on to Dartmouth in 1966, graduating in 1970 with distinction as an English major and competing in intercollegiate track and cross country for four years. My decision to go to law school was based on my belief that it would put me in the best position to pursue my intense interest in protecting the environment. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1973 with an emphasis in environmental law.
Less than 48 hours after graduating, I was working as a staff attorney for the US Environmental Protection Agency implementing the newly enacted Clean Water Act. Major cases I handled related primarily to the pulp and paper industry and the iron and steel sector resulted in pollution reductions in the range of 85-95% . Moving to the air program in 1976, I led the legal staff and later the entire professional staff in enforcement work to get compliance from a cross section of heavy industry in the Midwest. In 1981, I moved to a newly formed legal office as Deputy Regional Counsel for enforcement and managed the legal work of over 100 attorneys in cases under all the Federal environmental laws, with particular emphasis on the newly passed Superfund law to clean up the highest priority hazardous waste sites, of which the largest number were in the EPA Midwest region. In 1985, I worked for the then West German Ministry of Interior as part of an executive exchange program. In 1988 I moved from the legal office to leading the division that included programs to control newly generated hazardous waste and later the abandoned waste sites, as well, managing over 450 people and a budget in the tens of millions of dollars. In 1992, EPA selected me as Deputy Regional Administrator to serve as the chief operating officer of the largest region with 1300 employees and a budget of close to $1 billion. During my 30-year career at EPA, I served on numerous national work groups and task forces to help shape the policies and programs of the Agency and as US Chair of the International Joint Commission’s Great Lakes Water Quality Board. I left EPA in 2003 and served as EPA Alumni Association President for 2 years.
Ten days after leaving EPA, I launched the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative under the leadership of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. In 14 years as Executive Director, I grew the organization from 20 U.S. and Canadian Cities to 130 with a combined population of over 17 million people and established a voice for local government in policies for this global freshwater resource, created a best practices network among the cities, and became a presence in Washington and Ottawa to advocate for cities and the resource. We had major initiatives involving micro plastics, water conservation, radioactive waste, sustainability, and much more. I was part of our organization’s delegation to the UN Conference on Climate Change in 2015 in Paris. I retired from the Cities Initiative in 2017 and the organization has grown to over 400 members.
Upon seeing a picture of the Cuyahoga River on fire in December 1969 in my last year of undergraduate school at Dartmouth College, I decided I wanted to be part of the effort to stop the serious contamination of the environment and restore it to a healthy, sustainable level. Over 50 years later, I am still at it. After a successful high school career in Wausau, Wisconsin where I received awards as the most distinguished male graduate and top athlete, I went on to Dartmouth in 1966, graduating in 1970 with distinction as an English major and competing in intercollegiate track and cross country for four years. My decision to go to law school was based on my belief that it would put me in the best position to pursue my intense interest in protecting the environment. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1973 with an emphasis in environmental law.
Less than 48 hours after graduating, I was working as a staff attorney for the US Environmental Protection Agency implementing the newly enacted Clean Water Act. Major cases I handled related primarily to the pulp and paper industry and the iron and steel sector resulted in pollution reductions in the range of 85-95% . Moving to the air program in 1976, I led the legal staff and later the entire professional staff in enforcement work to get compliance from a cross section of heavy industry in the Midwest. In 1981, I moved to a newly formed legal office as Deputy Regional Counsel for enforcement and managed the legal work of over 100 attorneys in cases under all the Federal environmental laws, with particular emphasis on the newly passed Superfund law to clean up the highest priority hazardous waste sites, of which the largest number were in the EPA Midwest region. In 1985, I worked for the then West German Ministry of Interior as part of an executive exchange program. In 1988 I moved from the legal office to leading the division that included programs to control newly generated hazardous waste and later the abandoned waste sites, as well, managing over 450 people and a budget in the tens of millions of dollars. In 1992, EPA selected me as Deputy Regional Administrator to serve as the chief operating officer of the largest region with 1300 employees and a budget of close to $1 billion. During my 30-year career at EPA, I served on numerous national work groups and task forces to help shape the policies and programs of the Agency and as US Chair of the International Joint Commission’s Great Lakes Water Quality Board. I left EPA in 2003 and served as EPA Alumni Association President for 2 years.
Ten days after leaving EPA, I launched the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative under the leadership of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. In 14 years as Executive Director, I grew the organization from 20 U.S. and Canadian Cities to 130 with a combined population of over 17 million people and established a voice for local government in policies for this global freshwater resource, created a best practices network among the cities, and became a presence in Washington and Ottawa to advocate for cities and the resource. We had major initiatives involving micro plastics, water conservation, radioactive waste, sustainability, and much more. I was part of our organization’s delegation to the UN Conference on Climate Change in 2015 in Paris. I retired from the Cities Initiative in 2017 and the organization has grown to over 400 members.
Degrees
- Dartmouth College 1970 - BA English
- University of Wisconsin Law School 1973 - JD
Admissions
- Wisconsin
Other Environmental Career Experience
Executive Director, Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities InitiativeInsight from David A. Ullrich
