Thomas G. Echikson is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of LeClairRyan. He has 25 years of finding solutions for clients, with a primary focus in environmental litigation and counseling. He represents clients in a variety of industries in civil and criminal litigation, enforcement and cleanup matters brought under all the federal environmental laws, as well as the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act and the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. He also represents clients in rulemaking, permitting, and variance proceedings before the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Interior, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Surface Transportation Board. Tom is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia and New York.


Lisa Garcia is the Environmental Protection Agency’s Associate Assistant Administrator for Environmental Justice within the agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. In this role Lisa has elevated environmental justice issues to the highest levels of the agency and developed and implemented Plan EJ 2014, a roadmap to integrate and strengthen all of EPA’s environmental justice initiatives. She also works to promote meaningful, working relationships with environmental justice communities, as well as builds strong partnerships with communities and other federal agencies to address some of the country’s most persistent environmental challenges. Lisa joined EPA in January 2009 serving as Senior Advisor to the Administrator for Environmental Justice. Prior to her work with EPA, Lisa also previously served as the Chief Advocate for Environmental Justice and Equity at the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation. She is licensed to practice law in New York.


John Ridgway is the Information Management and Communications Section Manager in the Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction Program for the Washington State Department of Ecology. John has 20 years of experience working directly with the Environmental Protection Agency senior management, and state legislators. He has extensive involvement in local, state, and national environmental justice dynamics; and multiple years of experience on EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council and a subcommittee representing state and local government concerns, executive steering committee, chairing multiple work groups. He also has collaborated with Peoples Republic of China on a hazardous waste information management project. In addition, John has 25 years of experience with state and federal statutes regarding hazardous waste, nuclear waste, and hazardous materials emergency management; and eight years as agency lead for production and negotiations of Environmental Performance Partnership Agreements with EPA Region 10, In addition, he has over 20 years of experience working with the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act through state and local emergency management.


Carol Ann Siciliano is the Associate General Counsel of the Cross-Cutting Issues Law Office, within the Office of General Counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency. She oversees three practice groups, one of which focuses on environmental justice. Under Carol Ann’s direction, attorneys in her office provide legal counsel to EPA programs and offices on all manner of environmental justice issues. She co-chairs EPA’s Environmental Justice Permitting Initiative and oversees other legal activities associated with the Agency’s Plan EJ 2014. She also directs attorneys with expertise in administrative law, international environmental law, the Endangered Species Act, NEPA and Indian Law. A member of the Senior Executive Service, Carol Ann began her EPA career in the Office of General Counsel’s Water Law Office, where she acquired considerable regulatory and litigation counseling experience in Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act matters. She clerked for the Honorable Charles L. Brieant of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and later was an associate with Latham & Watkins. Carol Ann is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia.