Before returning to Atlanta, Ms. Heard spent many years in Washington, D.C. simultaneously serving as EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance’s Federal Facilities Enforcement Office (FFEO) Acting Deputy Director and Director of FFEO’s Site Remediation Enforcement Staff (SRES).  Ms. Heard has managed various EPA headquarters and Region 4 legal offices, and led staff who provided enforcement and counsel support to regional program offices.Ms. Heard is the  Acting Regional Administrator for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 4. In this capacity, she provides leadership on the implementation and direction of Region 4 programs in the southeast.  Immediately prior to assuming this position, Ms. Heard was Acting Regional Counsel for Region 4 and a Senior Advisor on Community Engagement.  

Ms. Heard began her EPA Region 4 career as a legal intern and joined the Region full time in 1979 after working almost two years in a community practice law firm based in Atlanta’s Inman Park neighborhood.  She has extensive legal experience under all the statutes implemented by EPA including the Clean Air Act; Clean Water Act; Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; Oil Pollution Act; Underground Storage Tank Program; Safe Drinking Water Act; Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act; Toxic Substances Control Act; and, Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.  

She was detailed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia where she worked as a Special Assistant United States Attorney, and she served for two years as an advisor to Clark Atlanta University’s (CAU) Vice President for Sponsored Programs under an Intergovernmental Personnel Act assignment. At CAU, she worked collaboratively with faculty and staff to identify ways to integrate environmental concepts into existing academic programs, helped develop and sponsor a summer environmental training institute for elementary and middle school teachers, and helped organize CAU’s first Earth Day Celebration. She received her undergraduate degree from Duke University, and her J.D. from the Emory University School of Law.