FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: ECOS Executive Director Ben Grumbles, (202) 266-4929 or bgrumbles@ecos.org or
Lia Parisien, (202) 266-4931 or lparisien@ecos.org
Environmental Council of the States (ECOS)
ECOS Announces Historic Tie Vote and Election of Biser and Niermann as Officers
Washington, DC — ECOS is pleased to announce the election of distinguished members Elizabeth Biser of North Carolina and Jon Niermann of Texas to serve as Secretary-Treasurer and Secretary-Treasurer Elect, respectively. The historic dual selection resulted from an unprecedented tie vote Friday in a special runoff election to fill the unexpired term of Liesl Eichler Clark, who recently departed ECOS and her post as Director of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, & Energy.
“I am thrilled to welcome both Chairman Niermann and Secretary Biser as officers and proud of all of our ECOS members who voted across political and geographic lines to select such a talented and diverse team,” said ECOS President Myra Reece, Director of Environmental Affairs for the South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control. “ECOS looks forward to leveraging Elizabeth and Jon’s energy and wideranging expertise as we continue to forge bipartisan solutions on state and national environmental and public health priorities such as infrastructure, climate resilience, environmental justice, and PFAS and materials management.”
Biser, who was appointed Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality by Governor Roy Cooper in 2021, will serve out the remainder of Clark’s term until late August. Currently Vice Chair of the ECOS Land & Materials Committee, Biser has previous experience as President of Biser Strategies LLC and Senior Policy Advisor of the Recycling Partnership. Earlier, she was Director of Legislative & Intergovernmental Affairs when the agency was known as the North Carolina Department of Environment & Natural Resources. Biser holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Public Administration degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Niermann was appointed to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) by Governor Greg Abbott in 2015 and reappointed to a second term in 2021. He has served as the agency’s Chairman since 2018 and currently is Chair of the ECOS Air Committee and Region 6 Representative to the ECOS Executive Committee. Niermann is slated to succeed Biser as Secretary-Treasurer in late August but will immediately join the other officers in leadership discussions going forward. Prior to his TCEQ service, he held roles at the Texas Attorney General’s Office, including Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Environmental Protection Division. He also has worked as an environmental attorney in private practice. Niermann earned a Bachelor’s degree in History at the University of California at Santa Barbara and a Master of Business Administration and Juris Doctor at the University of Oregon.
Rounding out the current roster of ECOS officers are Vice President Chuck Carr Brown, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, and Past President Todd Parfitt, Director of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.
ECOS is the national nonprofit, nonpartisan association of state environmental agency leaders. For more information, visit www.ecos.org.
