Environmental policy expert Janet McCabe joins O’Neill School

Written by: Leslie Wells, Rebecca Trimpe, and Nikki Livingston

Janet McCabe, former deputy administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is joining the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs to help prepare the next generation of leaders for service. That includes leading a course through O’Neill Indianapolis during the 2025–26 academic year.

McCabe has a long and distinguished career as an environmental policy expert working in public service, law, and academia. She also served on the O’Neill School’s Dean’s Council as an advisor and ambassador for the school.

“Janet McCabe’s work throughout her career has been a testament to the power of public service, and her passion for protecting both people and the planet is truly inspiring,” said Siân Mooney, dean of the O’Neill School. “We’re thrilled she is returning to IU to join O’Neill and share her invaluable experience with our students.”

At O’Neill, she will serve as a visiting professor and an executive in residence at the Paul H. O’Neill Center for Leadership in Public Service, leading guest lectures and seminars, offering professional coaching to students, and helping build relationships with key stakeholders.

During her yearlong appointment with IU, McCabe also will serve as a distinguished scholar at IU’s Robert H. McKinney School of Law and as a senior policy advisor at the Environmental Resilience Institute. She previously worked with both McKinney and ERI from 2017 to 2021 as a professor of practice and ERI director.

“I am so pleased to be returning to Indiana University,” McCabe said. “The opportunity to work with students, faculty and researchers in the law and public policy schools, and with the amazing staff at the IU Environmental Resilience Institute, brings together so many issues and ideas that I have spent my career working on. It takes both law and public policy to effect change for the benefit of society, especially in the challenging area of climate change, and IU is training the best of the best to make a difference.”

In October 2024, McCabe was the keynote speaker for O’Neill’s two-day Roads to Removal Indiana conference. The event focused on how Indiana and the Midwest could help the United States become a net-zero carbon emissions nation by 2050. She retired from the EPA just prior to that event, having played a key role in shaping the nation’s environmental policies and overseeing all management aspects of the EPA and its workforce since 2021.

To read more about McCabe’s upcoming work across Indiana University, visit this link.