Master of Public Administration to host annual Gordon Sherman lecture

The Master of Public Administration program will present the annual Gordon Sherman lecture Monday, Feb. 27, at 3:30 p.m. in the Draughon Lecture Room on the ground floor of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library. Beverly Banister will give this year’s lecture, titled “Merging Environmental Policy and Public Service.”

Banister graduated from Auburn University in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. After college, Banister joined the EPA, working first on remedial Superfund programs, then on water projects, including underground storage tanks and water management.

She climbed the ladder at the EPA, eventually becoming director of the Region 4 Water Division. It was in this role that she spearheaded the acceleration of the establishment of standards for impaired bodies of water to address pollutant-loading threats, maintained the lowest National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System backlog in the country and finalized plans to significantly improve water quality in the Charlotte Harbor and Mobile Bay estuaries.

Following her tenure in the Water Division, Banister became the director of the Air, Pesticides and Toxics Management Division for Region 4, where she had oversight for all regional EPA air, pesticides and toxics programs. During her tenure in this role, Banister’s leadership resulted in 39 areas, including large population cities such as Atlanta, Charlotte and Birmingham, moving from a designation of “not attaining” to “attaining” clean air standards, resulting in cleaner air quality for millions of people. During this time, Banister’s work also had international prominence, as she traveled to Shanghai, China, to support air quality planning in preparation for the 2007 Women’s World Cup.

In 2019, Banister’s leadership and expertise were rewarded with an appointment as the Region 4 Deputy Regional Administrator, the second-highest ranking EPA official for the entire Southeast. She retired from that role in 2020.

The lecture is free and open to the public, and a reception will follow. For more information, contact Bridgett King at bak0020@auburn.edu.