Position: Secretary

Type of Appointment/Position: Presidential with Senate confirmation    

Lester R. Brown

Current Rating:

The journey from farmer to global environmental leader has been marked by many remarkable accomplishments along the way. After earning a degree in agricultural science from Rutgers University in 1955 and spending the next six months in rural India, Brown began a 14-year career with the U.S. Government's Department of Agriculture. During these years, Brown served as an international agricultural analyst, adviser to Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman on foreign agricultural policy, and administrator of the departments International Agricultural Development Service.

In 1969, Brown left government service to help establish the Overseas Development Council, and then, in 1974, he founded the Worldwatch Institute, which became the premier research institute devoted to the analysis of global environmental issues. In 1984, Brown launched the State of the World reports, annual assessments translated into 30 languages that have become the bible of the global environmental movement. Four years later, Brown expanded Worldwatchs publications by launching World Watch, a bimonthly magazine featuring articles on the Institutes research.

In May 2001, he founded Earth Policy Institute, whose purpose is to provide a vision of an environmentally sustainable economy, a roadmap of how to get from here to there, and an ongoing assessment of this effort, of where we are moving ahead and where we are not.

Brown, a MacArthur Fellow, has been awarded 22 honorary degrees. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the 1987 United Nations Environment Prize, the 1989 World Wide Fund for Nature Gold Medal, and the 1994 Blue Planet Prize.