Former EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman will serve as Elon University’s Isabella Cannon Distinguished Visiting Professor of Leadership March 1-3. Whitman, the first female governor of New Jersey from 1993-2000, will meet with students and give two public lectures in McCrary Theatre.
Whitman’s first lecture, at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 1, is titled “America, Washington and the Environment: Why Making Responsible Environmental Policy has Become So Difficult.” She will draw on personal experience as a leader and administrator in her second lecture, titled “Leadership: A Commonsense Approach,” at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, March 3. Both lectures are free and open to the public.
Whitman will be the second Isabella Cannon Distinguished Visiting Professor of Leadership, which is funded by the estate of the late Isabella Cannon, a 1924 alumnus and former mayor of Raleigh, N.C. The visiting professor teaches leadership classes and works directly with students in the Isabella Cannon Leadership Program. Former presidential adviser and journalist David Gergen was the first visiting professor in January 2004.
Whitman served as EPA administrator from January 2001-June 2003. President George W. Bush nominated Whitman for the position following her term as governor of New Jersey, where she led a successful effort to clean up the state’s air and water. She reduced the number of beach closings and established a new watershed management program. Whitman also won approval of a stable funding source to preserve one million acres of open space and farmland within 10 years, meaning New Jersey will permanently preserve 40 percent of its land by 2010.
A graduate of Wheaton College, Whitman provided opportunities for women in her gubernatorial administration, appointing New Jersey’s first female state Supreme Court justice and attorney general.
Whitman’s latest book is titled, “It’s My Party, Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America.”
-30-