Maine DEP Names Heather Parent As Policy Director, Melanie Loyzim And Mike Mullen Permanent Bureau Directors
October 19, 2011
Contact: Samantha DePoy-Warren, Maine DEP Spokesperson/Director of Education & Outreach samantha.depoy-warren@maine.gov 287-5842 (office) or 592-0427 (cell)
-Heather Parent, of Brewer is named Policy Director, and Melanie Loyzim, of Manchester, and Mike Mullen, of Winthrop, are sworn-in as the permanent directors of the Bureau of Air Quality and the Bureau of Land & Water Quality respectively-
AUGUSTA ? The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has a new Policy Director and two of its acting Bureau Directors have earned permanent positions on its senior leadership team.
Commissioner Pattie Aho has appointed Heather Parent, most recently a shareholding attorney in Eaton Peabody?s Environmental and Land Practice Group, as Policy Director, following the transfer of former director Jim Dusch into a newly-created post as DEP?s Southern Maine Regional Office Director.
As Policy Director, Parent will develop and implement thoughtful and practical policy, procedures and rules that offer environmental protections while not obstructing prosperity and serve as the department?s liaison to the State Attorney General?s Office.
She will also oversee the agency?s enforcement efforts, working to ensure DEP?s enforcement is timely, fair and firm and does not allow for violations to provide for a competitive advantage against those businesses and individuals who are undertaking environmental stewardship.
Parent, who grew up in the western Maine town of Peru and has a Juris Doctor and master?s in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School, has more than a decade of experience as an environmental attorney in the state, specializing in wetlands permitting and representation of businesses and municipalities in proceedings under state and federal hazardous substance and waste laws.
She particularly has a passion for Brownfields, a redevelopment program which cleans-up long contaminated sites so they can be put back in use and on the property tax rolls to benefit both the environment and the economy, and co-authored the Maine law text for the treatise on Brownfields Redevelopment.
Parent, now of Brewer, is active in the environmental law community, serving as secretary of the Environmental Law and Energy Section of the American Bar Association and of the Maine State Bar?s Natural Resources and Environmental Law Section. She is also engaged in the Greater Bangor Region, serving on the Bangor Trails Committee, Bangor Fusion and having attended the Bangor Regional Leadership Institute.
In addition to announcing Parent?s appointment, Melanie Loyzim, acting director of the Bureau of Air Quality since June, and Mike Mullen, acting director of the Bureau of Land & Water Quality since July, were sworn-in last week as permanent directors of their respective bureaus.
Loyzim, of Manchester, holds a B.S. in Environmental Management and Policy from the University of Maine and a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Colorado.
She worked at a private Colorado environmental services firm and in that state?s Department of Public Health and Environment on air quality policy and regulation development before joining the Maine DEP in 2006, where she has served as the manager of the Air Toxics and Emissions Inventory Program, leading a team focused on measuring emissions across the state and coordinating outreach and compliance assistance for thousands of Maine sources that emit air toxics and other pollutants.
Mullen, of Winthrop, has been with the bureau since 1983, most serving recently as the Enforcement and Compliance Director in the Division of Land Resource Regulation in which he directed complaint response and resolution, and provided regulatory and technical assistance to the public for activities regulated due to their size or proximity to protected natural resources.
Parent, Loyzim and Mullen join Director of Assistance/Small Business Ombudsman Julie Churchill, Spokesperson/Director of Education and Outreach Samantha DePoy-Warren and Bureau of Remediation & Waste Management Director Ron Dyer on the department?s appointed senior leadership team, led by Commissioner Aho.
Maine Department of Environmental Protection Policy Director Heather Parent can be reached at (207) 287-8662 or heather.parent@maine.gov. Air Quality Bureau Director Melanie Loyzim can be reached at (207) 287-6104 or melanie.loyzim@maine.gov. Land & Water Quality Bureau Director Mike Mullen can be reached at (207) 446-1611 or mike.mullen@maine.gov.
For more information about the department, visit http://www.maine.gov/dep.
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