Marks Announces Retirement as Director of ADEQ

Updated 7/30/14 at 3 p.m.

Teresa Marks, longtime director of the Arkansas Department of an Environmental Quality, has announced her retirement, effective Sept. 30.

Marks sent out an email on Tuesday afternoon to ADEQ staff, announcing the retirement and the fact that current deputy director Ryan Benefield will fill the role as active director until a replacement is named.

Current legal division chief Tammera Harrelson will become acting deputy director, according to the email.

Marks also wrote: “I know the department frequently comes under pressure for actions or decisions that are beyond your control, but you handle it professionally, focusing on the work to be accomplished, in an efficient and effective manner. This has been a great job and I sincerely thank you for all that you do.”

The retirement is “bittersweet,” Marks said in a phone interview in between meetings in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

“I enjoyed working under Gov. [Mike] Beebe,” Marks said. “My term is limited and I’ve known for a while I might not stay the whole time. I’m sure the new governor will want their own person in that position.”

She also said she probably won’t stay in retirement.

“I promised my husband I would travel for six months, but after that I don’t really know, but I like to work.”

Walter Wright, a prominent environmental attorney based in Little Rock, said Marks “is an incredibly intelligent has done an excellent job in dealing with difficult circumstances and a changing political climate.”

He added, however, that “she had backed her staff in some decisions that put her in the crosshairs of the regulated community.”

“I think she knew her time would expire in January,” Wright said. “Maybe September just seemed like a better time to go.”

Marks was appointed by Gov. Mike Beebe in 2007, according to the ADEQ website.

In 2012, she also served a term as president of the Environmental Council of the States.

She worked for 12 years under Beebe at the Attorney General’s Office of Arkansas, ending her career there as deputy attorney general for the Public Protection Department.

A former high school geography and civics teacher, she earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Arkansas at Monticello and her law degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law.