Jim Giattina is the Director of the Water Management Division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 4, in Atlanta, Georgia. He is responsible for planning, coordinating and implementing all Regional EPA water programs related to the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act and other federal laws.

Jim is a native of Birmingham, Ala. He received his B.S. in Biology from the University of Alabama and his M.S. in Aquatic Ecology from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Jim’s many years of experience give him sound understanding of the technical and public policy issues surrounding environmental protection.

He started his career in 1979, at the U.S. Environmental Research Laboratory in Oregon. In 1984, he accepted a position with the U.S. EPA’s Region 5 Water Division in Chicago, Illinois, where he managed a variety of regulatory and non-regulatory programs.

In 1991, Jim became the Deputy Director of the EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office. In 1996, he took on the role of the EPA’s Gulf of Mexico Program Office. Both of these offices foster an approach to environmental protection that emphasizes collaboration and consensus, sound scientific information, and strategic partnerships to achieve results. These attributes are the cornerstones of the U.S. EPA’s move towards community-based environmental protection. 

Jim and his wife, Christine, live in Roswell, Ga., with their three children, Matthew, Mary, and Emily.