"A Day in the Life" of Allison Landsman, Environmental Protection Agency

Career: Program Analyst Date: May 2010 Place: Environmental Protection Agency, Washington DC

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Welcome to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency! My name is Allison Landsman, and I'm a Program Analyst.

Here at EPA, our mission is to protect people and the environment.

Growing up, I always enjoyed playing with computers, telephones and the latest TVs. I always knew that I wanted to go into some sort of IT.

When I went to the University of Maryland, it worked out really well because I had the opportunity to learn a lot of programmatic and policy knowledge about environmental science. But I also had the opportunity to learn remote sensing and geographic information systems. So this is where I work. This past year we created interactive maps, which were really informative to members of the public because we provided information to them that was already available but through a more understandable way. For example, they could zoom into areas where they live to see what enforcement activities were happening in their neighborhood.

A lot of people think that the federal government doesn't do a lot of interesting work, that we're all scientists bottled up in a little closet. But really, it's the exact opposite of that. We're really charged to do a lot of interesting and initiative work and constantly coming up with new ideas to do things more efficiently.

I kinda always knew that I wanted to work for the federal government because, for as long as I could remember, my dad worked for the Environmental Protection Agency out of Philadelphia. And I always kinda grew up planting trees, and I knew that the EPA was kinda the epicenter for environmental policy. And I knew I just didn't want to be reacting to environmental policy. I knew I wanted to be a part of creating environmental policy. So it was really important for me to come to DC and be a part of it as soon as I could.

This is one of my favorite areas right by the office. It's right in the courtyard in the middle of a lot of different activities going on. And there are also a lot of great restaurants and different places to meet up with friends, as well as shopping. See ya!