Erin Sutton serves as the Director of the Quality and Mission Support Division for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM).  In this role, Ms. Sutton is responsible for leading and directing a diverse team of professionals who support and enable the cleanup mission in Oak Ridge.  Together, her teams focus on quality assurance, regulatory and environmental compliance, reindustrialization, and community outreach.

Specifically, Sutton oversees the activities in two branches, each with differing areas of focus.  The first is responsible for ensuring quality assurance across Oak Ridge’s cleanup program.  Employees develop procedures for operations, maintain a training program, conduct internal and contractor assessments, measure organizational culture trends, and interface with external groups on quality issues. 

The other branch provides services focusing predominately on regulatory and environmental compliance, facility management, future development at the East Tennessee Technology Park, and public outreach.  Team members work to ensure OREM’s cleanup will help shape the East Tennessee Technology Park’s future, including historic preservation and reindustrialization.

Prior to joining the Department of Energy, she worked at the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation’s Division of Remediation as the East Tennessee Regional Brownfield Coordinator.  In her 20+ years of experience, she has worked with multiple federal and state environmental regulatory agencies and private sector environmental services companies.  Ms. Sutton holds a bachelor’s degree in geology from Hartwick College and a master’s degree in Environmental and Engineering Geology from Radford University.