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Q. What do you like best about your career?

A. I feel blessed to have been able to pursue an education and career driven by my personal values and interests.

Choosing a career is difficult decision to make. Many people my age are miserable because they feel trapped in their jobs.

I know lots of good scientists who didn't follow their hearts and as a result do work they hate. When I was growing up in Missouri, my Mom always worried that I'd either drown or grow gills. A bachelor degree in marine biology gave me an understanding of freshwater systems and drove me to a master's degree in aquatic (freshwater) biology. Then I got a job with the State of Texas as a field biologist and loved it. An opportunity opened up at EPA, and I took it.

My career allows me not only to protect what we have and restore what we've trashed, but to help others understand what we need to do. I manage the EPA Clean Lakes program, which supports the study and restoration of polluted lakes and their watersheds. I work with our volunteer water-quality monitoring program to help people understand that our quality of life depends upon the quality of our environment. We are tearing up this Good Earth at a rapid pace. I really believe in EPA's mission, and every day I learn a lot that greatly interests me.

I strongly believe the Earth is ours - not to own, but to care for.

That's a huge responsibility, and we desperately need EPA to help us meet it.

Q. What do you find most frustrating about your job?

A. What frustrates me most is seeing good technical science applied to a problem (usually at a large taxpayer expense), a clear and effective solution developed, and a wrong decision made -- due to politics.

I like to think we speak for the environment because it can't protect itself. But we really live in a world created by man -- societies, governments, businesses, budgets, profits, state lines, laws, jurisdictions, and egos -- most of which oppose the natural world. But nothing is cheap, and somebody has to pay for it.

We haven't made the connection that our man-made world can't exist without the natural world.

Sometimes that reality is not only frustrating, it's painful.

Q. What experiences and coursework would you recommend?

A. A college degree doesn't mean somebody is smart. There are a lot of highly educated, socially retarded idiots. But it does show someone was exposed to the material and learned enough to pass.

A large part of secondary education is to find your heart.

If you are into business, you'll be good at it and enjoy it. Maybe your heart lies in the medical profession, or law, or sales, or (God bless you) science.

Find what you like best by exposing your mind to as many career disciplines as possible.

I'm not good at math. But I was driven by my love for biological sciences, and I did what it took to do well in chemistry and calculus.

I remember that organic chemistry was the course that blew out everybody who didn't have a scientist's heart. They weren't less intelligent than the survivors; they just didn't have the will to discipline themselves.

Being too specialized can make a person less marketable. I strongly recommend a Master's degree which will open doors for someone interested in a science career. But we also need accountants, business managers, engineers, writers and secretaries.

Many federal and state agencies have summer intern programs that allow a student to see how an agency works.

Many scientists can't communicate effectively. When I look back at my most useful experiences, bartending went a long way in developing people skills.

Q. What is your typical workday like?

A. We have a flexible work schedule. I begin my day at 6:30AM and finish at 4:00PM. This gives me every other Monday off, which I usually dedicate to my family. I have two daughters and try to get to their schools to help teachers with science classes, or just to do lunch. I spend other Mondays with my beautiful wife.

One of my favorite things about working at EPA is that I've never been bored.

When I'm at work, I begin by logging on and reading e-mails. I receive 30 - 50 e-mails per day: technical documents, articles and news clips, meeting notices, questions and correspondence from my counterparts and a few jokes. I spend up to 4 hours a day on the phone. We have conference calls and meetings. I read a LOT at my job to be able to provide technical support to our people responsible for managing grants in the states I support. These grants total tens of millions of dollars and can be quite complicated.

Q. What is your favorite web site?

A. I use our web site www.epa.gov a lot and recommend it. We have great web geeks who do a good job linking to other sites, but there is a wealth of environmental information right here.

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