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 2005 Woman of
Distinction
Key Note Speaker
Christine Todd
Whitman
Former New Jersey Governor
Former EPA Administrator
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Christine
Todd Whitman has spent a distinguished career in public service
while serving as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection
Agency and as the 50th Governor of the State of New Jersey. Whitman
served in the Cabinet of President George W. Bush as EPA
Administrator from January 2001 to June 2003.
Among the
noteworthy achievements of her time in office were the introduction
of President Bush's Clear Skies Initiative to ensure clean air for
all Americans to breathe; the establishment of a watershed based
approach to protecting our Nation's lakes, streams, and rivers; and
the passage of landmark brownfields legislation that is bringing
economic and environmental vitality back to neighborhoods marred by
abandoned industrial sites.
Under
Administrator Whitman's leadership, the EPA also entered an historic
agreement to clean up the Hudson River, issued the first-ever State
of the Environment Report, and for the first time required cleaner
burning diesel engines for non-road vehicles such as tractors and
bulldozers. Whitman believes strongly that economic success and
environmental protection must go hand in hand, which is why she
actively promoted partnerships and market incentives such as the
Energy Star and Climate Leaders programs.
Prior to leading
the EPA, Administrator Whitman served as the 50th
Governor of New Jersey, the first female ever to be elected to that
State's highest office.
During her first
term, she immediately began delivering on a campaign promise to cut
state income taxes by 30 percent for most taxpayers and eliminate
them all together for 380,000 low-income families. While cutting
taxes more than 50 times during her tenure, Whitman coupled
increased state funding for education with higher academic standards
for public schools, won approval for a stable funding source to
preserve 1 million acres of farmland and open space in the nation's
most densely populated state, saw the creation of 375,000 new jobs,
and saw crime reduced to its lowest level in 25 years.
Governor Whitman
also appointed the first African-American to sit on the state
Supreme Court and the first woman to serve as its Chief Justice as
well as the first female Chief of Staff. In 1995, she became the
first governor to deliver the Republican response to a United States
President's State of the Union Address.
Governor Whitman
currently sits on the Board of Directors of S.C. Johnson and Son,
Incorporated, Texas Instruments Incorporated, United Technologies
Corporation, the Chicago Climate Exchange, Incorporated and
Millennium Challenge Corporation.
Governor Whitman
is also a Co-chair of the National Smart Growth Council, an
initiative of Smart Growth America; and Co-chair of Freedom's
Answer. The Governor is a member of the following:
the Steering Committee of
The Cancer Institute of New Jersey Leadership Council; the United
Nations Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and
Sanitation; the Leadership Council of the Republican Pro-Choice
Coalition; the National Steering Committee, W Stands for Women-Bush
Cheney '04; the Governors' Board of The Oquirrh Institute. She is
also serving on the Study on S&T Presidential and Federal Advisory
Committee Appointments of the National Academies and a member of the
newly formed Center for Civic Engagement and Volunteerism Advisory
Board at Raritan Community College.
She
authored the book, Its My Party, Too, which is about the
place of moderates in American politics.
Prior to becoming governor, she was President of the New Jersey
Board of Public Utilities and served on the Somerset County Board of
Freeholders. She grew up in Hunterdon County, New Jersey and earned
a bachelor's degree in government from Wheaton College in
Massachusetts in 1968. She is married to John R. Whitman. They
have two children.
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