Profiles of Members of EPA's LGBT Community: Brendan Doyle
Profiles of Members of EPA's LGBT Community
Office of Research and Development
Washington, DC
Where were you born?
New York, New York.
What brought you to EPA?
I was looking for opportunities to work on national environmental policy and regulations at the time that the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act were first enacted. I was fortunate to join the agency at that crucial moment.
Describe the type of work you do at EPA.
Currently, I'm working on homeland security research. I support our research center by communicating the impact that our work has on communities' ability to respond to and recover from homeland security incidents. I represent EPA on several inter-agency committees. I am always finding ways to leverage other agencies and departments' resources to accomplish our mission of protecting human health and the environment.
What is your highest level of education? What was your major?
I have masters degrees in public policy and city and regional planning.
When did you know you were a member of the LBGT community?
When I was about five years old. But given the situation at the time, I had to hide my sexual orientation until I came out in 1982.
What message would you like to send other members of the LBGT community who are considering college or a career in environmental protection?
Colleges and universities and the federal government are more open to having LGBT students and employees than they were decades ago. When I started my career, government and non-profit environmental groups were the only places to work on environmental policy and start-up environmental protection programs, yet no one dared to come out of the closet for fear that it would impact your career.
Today, EPA, like other federal agencies, has an EEO Policy that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, sex and marriage status. As a founder of “Equality EPA” – EPA's non-labor, LGBT employee organization, I'm very proud of the many ways that we've been able to “level the playing field” for our LGBT employees. Yet, I worry about EPA's ability to remain competitive in today's green jobs marketplace when it comes to recruiting and retaining its LGBT employees.