Browner, Carol M.

▪ American attorney and politician

in full  Carol Martha Browner 

born Dec. 16, 1955, Miami, Fla., U.S.

      American attorney and politician who served as director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; 1993–2001) in the administration of Pres. Bill Clinton (Clinton, Bill) and as coordinator of energy and climate policy (2009– ) under Pres. Barack Obama (Obama, Barack).

      Browner grew up in southern Florida, and the Everglades were a short trip from her home. The proximity of such an extensive and diverse wetland illustrated to her the importance of environmental responsibility. Browner received a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida in 1977, and she remained there to earn her law degree in 1979. She entered politics in 1986 as the chief legal aide for environmental issues for U.S. Sen. Lawton Chiles of Florida. In 1988 she moved to Tennessee after being named legislative director for Al Gore (Gore, Al), who was then a U.S. senator. Three years later Browner returned to Florida, where she led the state's environmental regulation efforts.

      When President Clinton took office in 1993, Browner was named director of the EPA, and she held the post until Clinton left office in 2001. She was an advocate for what she called “common sense” in environmental regulation. She worked to pass restrictions on carbon and particulate emissions, and she stepped up enforcement of existing environmental and public health laws. Browner and Vice President Gore worked together to raise public awareness of the threat posed by global warming, and she created an office within the EPA devoted to examining adverse environmental effects on children's health.

      In 2001 Browner took a job as a consultant with Madeleine Albright (Albright, Madeleine)'s Albright Group. After the 2008 presidential election, Obama selected her to serve as the newly created “climate czar,” a post that she assumed following Obama's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2009.

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