Mr. Owens was appointed director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality by Governor Janet Napolitano in January 2003. He provides executive leadership for ADEQ and sets overall agency policy and priorities for the department. Before joining ADEQ, Mr. Owens was a practicing environmental attorney in Phoenix for 14 years. Mr. Owens graduated with honors from Brown University in 1978 and received his law degree in 1981 from Vanderbilt Law School, where he was editor in chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review. From 1982-84 Mr. Owens served as counsel to the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology. From 1985-88, he was chief counsel and later state director for then U.S. Senator Al Gore. Mr. Owens has served on numerous environmental panels, including the EPA's Clean Air Act Advisory Committee, the Phoenix Environmental Quality Commission and the Joint Public Advisory Committee of the North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation, which reviews environmental matters arising under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Mr. Owens also has written and lectured on Arizona environmental law.