Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) Administrator Anne Vogel has just been elevated from the state to the federal level after being appointed by President Donald Trump as the U.S. EPA Region 5 Administrator.

According to Lee Zeldin, the U.S. EPA Administrator, her appointment is credited to her experience running the Ohio EPA and especially her work regarding the East Palestine train derailment that resulted in a massive chemical spill cleanup effort overseen by Vogel. 

As the regional administrator, Vogel will be in charge of the EPA's work across the states of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, 37 Tribal nations and, of course, Ohio.

She will also head up the EPA's Great Lakes National Program, which coordinates with Canada to protect the Great Lakes' water and the life within it.

Before Vogel ran the Ohio EPA, she was Policy Director for Gov. Mike DeWine.

"Anne Vogel was key to the emergency response and subsequent cleanup of the environmental disaster that happened in our town in 2023," said East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway.

"Anne was there from the beginning, and she will be there for us in the future in this new role as head of the U.S. EPA Region 5," Conaway added.