Plain Writing Act: 2023 Annual Report
I. Senior Agency Official for Plain Writing
Eric E. Wachter
Director
Office of the Executive Secretariat
wachter.eric@epa.gov
(202) 564-1878
II. Training
- The EPA offers an agencywide plain-writing training through its learning and development program, EPA University. The course adheres to federal plain writing guidelines.
- The Seattle regional office holds an annual series of public involvement trainings for all staff. These trainings cover various aspects of external communication, many of which include plain-writing concepts.
- The Office of Emergency Management conducts internal training on communicating technical topics to a nontechnical audience.
III. Ongoing Compliance and Sustaining Change
- The national-program and regional offices have designated or are identifying officials for plain writing who work in collaboration with the senior official.
- See appendix for a list of the designated officials.
- These designated officials possess institutional knowledge of the unique processes and suite of documents produced in their offices to implement processes for ongoing compliance.
- These processes include communications officials’ approval of documents; multi-level managerial review for plain writing; designating plain-writing coordinators in individual offices; and refresher training courses.
- Offices continue to follow plain-writing procedures to satisfy the executive order and administrative orders that predate the Plain Writing Act.
- The Office of the Executive Secretariat in the Office of the Administrator led a collaborative agencywide effort to produce an updated Correspondence Manual. The Correspondence Manual is the guide for our letters and memorandums and includes a chapter on plain writing. The office drafted an agencywide email from the Deputy Administrator announcing the manual and directing employees to take time to review.
- The New York office continued its initiative to revamp its websites for Superfund sites so they better meet plain writing principles and are easier to understand.
- Colleagues in New York also continue to translate public documents to make them more accessible to the diverse communities of the region.
- The Seattle office offers an annual series of public-involvement trainings available to all staff that cover a range of external communication, many of which include plain writing concepts. The course list includes “Creating Good Web Content” and “Media Relations 101.”
- The brownfields program put together a glossary of common translations for brownfields terms that do not translate accurately using direct Spanish translation.
- The Office of Air and Radiation has resources for its staff to better aid the public’s understanding of climate change terminology.
- The Office of Research and Development hosts and promotes an intranet page to promote effective communication.
- The Office of Underground Storage Tanks provides plain writing resources from the Plain Language Action and Information Network on Digital.gov.
IV. Agency's plain-writing website
- The EPA’s plain-writing website is: https://www.epa.gov/web-policies-and-procedures/plain-writing.
- The site is linked from the EPA’s homepage.
Appendix: EPA Plain Writing Designated Officials
Office of the Administrator
- Angela Shogren
Office of Air and Radiation
- Katherine Stevens
Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention
-
Terri Green
Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
- Keith Bartlett
Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights
- TBD
Office of the Chief Financial Officer
- Diane Kelty
Office of the General Counsel
- Elise Packard
Office of the Inspector General
- Jennifer Kaplan
Office of International and Tribal Affairs
- Martin Dieu
Office of Land and Emergency Management
- Matt Colip
Office of Mission Support
- Barbara Galloway
Office of Research and Development
- Dayna Gibbons
Office of Water
- TBD
Region 1 (Boston)
- TBD
Region 2 (New York)
- Mary Mears
Region 3 (Philadelphia)
- TBD
Region 4 (Atlanta)
- Brandi Jenkins
Region 5 (Chicago)
- Rhiannon Dee
Region 6 (Dallas)
- Jeffrey McAtee
Region 7 (Kansas City)
- Curtis Carey
Region 8 (Denver)
- Wendy Dew
Region 9 (San Francisco)
- Ayana McNair (updated 4/26/24)
Region 10 (Seattle)
- Charles Bert