Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Gwen Fleming: EPA Chief of Staff

Gwen Fleming
Gwen Keyes Fleming is the new chief of staff of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC. Fleming is the former DeKalb (GA) district attorney and was most recently the EPA’s Region 4 regional administrator based in Atlanta.  She began her new assignment on June 3. In her new role, she will serve as a senior adviser to the EPA administrator and agency senior leadership. She also will be responsible for managing the Office of the Administrator, which includes overseeing more than 17,000 employees.

Gwen Keyes Fleming has more than 15 years experience as both a prosecutor and administrator, serving as the District Attorney for five years in Georgia's Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit, which encompasses all of Dekalb County. She is the first African-American and the first woman to have held the District Attorney position. As District Attorney, she managed more than 165 employees, handling 13,000 felony cases each year with an annual budget of more than $12 million

Keyes Fleming has instituted several successful community outreach programs related to crime prevention on behalf of young women and children, working with vulnerable adults and at-risk communities. Prior to serving as District Attorney, she served as the elected Solicitor-General handling misdemeanor crimes and implemented numerous domestic violence prevention initiatives which successfully decreased the rate of domestic violence deaths in the county.

Keyes Fleming obtained her B.S. in Finance from Rutgers University and her Juris Doctorate from the Emory University School of Law. She has received numerous awards, including the Emory Law's Distinguished Alumni Award, Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys Leah Ward Sears Award for Distinction in the Profession in 2010, Atlanta's Top 100 Black Women of Influence in 1999, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, and the Women in the NAACP Award in 2010.

Keyes Fleming credits her parents – Ursula Keyes, a retired registered nurse, and her late father, Andrew J. Keyes, a former Tuskegee Airman – for her commitment to community service. She is married to Randal Keyes and they have two sons, Cory and Kyle.  (EPA, Cross Roads News, 6/7/2013)

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