Newswise — Lisa Jackson, President-elect Barack Obama's choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency, is a graduate of Tulane University in New Orleans, where she graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. Tulane Professor Kyriakos Papadopoulos taught Jackson his first year at Tulane and says "she was the top student in that class. There were no classes where she would not do it perfectly. She was the sharpest brain in her class."
Jackson grew up in New Orleans' Ninth Ward and attended St. Mary's Dominican High School. Following her graduation from Tulane, she went on to earn a master's in chemical engineering from Princeton University. Jackson worked for the EPA for 16 years in New York and Washington before serving as chief of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection.
"We're sending her a Tulane banner to put on her desk, " said Vijay John, chairman of Tulane's department of chemical and biomolecular engineering, who taught Jackson when he arrived at Tulane.
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