In Search of Fresh Air

In Search of Fresh Air

voices in the wilderness

STEPHANIE HOGAN ’02

CONCERN FOR THE PLANET HAS BEEN PART OF Hogan’s life for as long as she can remember: She grew up outside Cleveland, where the Cuyahoga River—a waterway so dirty it caught fire in 1969—was practically in her back yard. “I wasn’t around when that happened, but I couldn’t help but know all about it,” she says. “It sparked much of the environmental movement in the 1970s.”

That infamous fire also led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, where Hogan now works. One of the youngest attorneys in the EPA’s Office of General Counsel, she plays a key role in enforcing the CrossState Air Pollution Rule, a provision of the Clean Air Act that protects citizens from harmful power-plant emissions that drift across state lines. The agency says this regulation will help prevent tens of thousands of premature deaths, heart attacks and other illnesses in the United States, including hot spots such as New Haven, Connecticut, where 93 percent of ozone pollution has been found to come from out of state. “It has a direct impact on people’s health,” says Hogan, who majored in environmental studies and English at Dartmouth. “If a family wants to go to the park, they don’t have to worry about inhaling pollution that’s going to cause an asthma attack in their child.”

Hogan helped the government defend this policy before the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld it in 2014, but there’s still more to do—including new regulations that reflect tougher EPA standards. Hogan’s efforts have been noticed: She was a finalist last year for the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal, given to federal employees for outstanding accomplishments. “I always wanted to do something that felt like I made a difference in the world,” she says. “It’s certainly humbling to know that the work we do here has such an impact.”

Heather Salerno