Lee Muller Thomas (born June 13, 1944) was Administrator of the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it ...

from 1985 to 1989 under President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

. He succeeded

William Ruckelshaus William Doyle Ruckelshaus (July 24, 1932 – November 27, 2019) was an American attorney and government official. Ruckelshaus served in the Indiana House of Representatives from 1966 to 1968, and was the United States Assistant Attorney General ...

. He is a Republican. Thomas led the EPA when the report ''Unfinished Business: A Comparative Assessment of Environmental Problems'' was released. Thomas earned his

Masters in Education The Master of Education (MEd or M.Ed. or Ed.M.; Latin ''Magister Educationis'' or ''Educationis Magister'') is a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. This degree in education often includes the following majors: curriculum a ...

from the University of South Carolina, where he did postgraduate work in

psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...

. He received his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree in psychology from the

University of the South The University of the South, familiarly known as Sewanee (), is a private Episcopal liberal arts college in Sewanee, Tennessee. It is owned by 28 southern dioceses of the Episcopal Church, and its School of Theology is an official seminary of ...

Sewanee, Tennessee Sewanee () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Franklin County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,535 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Tullahoma, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area. Sewanee is best known as the home of ...

. He went on to become president and chief operating officer of

Georgia-Pacific Corporation Georgia-Pacific LLC is an American pulp and paper company based in Atlanta, Georgia, and is one of the world's largest manufacturers and distributors of tissue, pulp, paper, toilet and paper towel dispensers, packaging, building products and re ...

in 2005. He was appointed president and chief executive officer of Rayonier, Inc. on March 1, 2007, and became chairman on July 1, 2007. In 2008, Thomas served as a member of the board of directors for the following entities: Airgas, Inc., the Regal Entertainment Group, the

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, (informally referred to as the Atlanta Fed and the Bank), is the sixth district of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the United States and is headquartered in midtown Atlanta, Georgia. The Atlanta Fed cover ...

, the

World Resources Institute The World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global research non-profit organization established in 1982 with funding from the MacArthur Foundation under the leadership of James Gustave Speth. WRI's activities are focused on seven areas: food, for ...

, the

American Forest and Paper Association The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) is the national trade association of the paper and wood products industry. AF&PA was formed on January 1, 1993, by the merger of the National Forest Product Association and the American Paper In ...

, and

DuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...

References

External links

*
Interview with Lee M. Thomas regarding his career at EPA
��EPA Alumni Association * 1944 births 20th-century American businesspeople Administrators of the United States Environmental Protection Agency American chief executives American chief operating officers Directors of DuPont Georgia-Pacific Living people People from Ridgeway, South Carolina Reagan administration personnel Sewanee: The University of the South alumni University of South Carolina alumni {{US-gov-bio-stub