President Obama has made a Jayhawk one of the newest members of his administration.

Karl Brooks, associate professor in the history and environmental studies departments, will serve as one of 10 regional administrators for the Environmental Protection Agency. Brooks will be the head of Region 7, based in Kansas City, Kan, which covers Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and nine tribal nations.

Brooks was told about his presidential appointment by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson the day before the news became public. Brooks said the news, though unexpected at the time, was exciting.

“I’m delighted,” he said. “It’s a huge honor — to be a product of this University, to work with President Obama and Lisa Jackson, and to do this really important work.”

As the administrator of Region 7, Brooks’ primary responsibility will be to serve as a link between the EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., and different environmental law and policy makers in the region.

“My job is to be the eyes and ears of Lisa Jackson,” Brooks said. “And it is a presidential appointment, so in some ways, it’s to be the eyes and ears for the White House on environmental policy here in this region.”

Brooks said his start date was still being negotiated, but he expects to start in the first half of February. He said presidential appointments usually last throughout the term of the president who makes the appointments, so he guessed he would be with the EPA through February of 2013.

While fulfilling his duties with the EPA, Brooks will take a leave of absence from the University. But he described himself as a very happy employee and said he plans to continue teaching classes in his departments upon his return. Brooks said he was also considering expanding his teaching repertoire by teaching another class to make sense of his work as an administrator.

Chris Brown, director of the environmental studies program, said Brooks’ experiences will provide students with hard-to-find insights when he returns to teaching.

“Immediately, it’s going to hurt,” Brown said, “because we’re going to miss Karl and his teaching, research and service he’s given. On the other hand, having one of our professors take leave to go to a place like that opens a whole new window of opportunity to our students.”

Brooks, a self-proclaimed late-life student, arrived at the University in 2000, when he took his first doctorate class on his 40th birthday. His involvement in academia has been vast, something that Brown said must have been appealing to Jackson and Obama.

Brooks received his undergraduate degree in history from Yale, his master’s in international relations from the London School of Economics and his law degree from Harvard. He practiced law for 12 years in his hometown of Boise, Idaho, and also served for six years in the Idaho Senate. Brown said Brooks’ range of experiences made him a great choice for the job.

“Clearly the people that chose him valued not only his experiences with the state Legislature in Idaho, but also the academic work he’s done,” Brown said. “They’re buying the whole package. They must have valued his academic experiences with students and working with the public ­— all the things a professor does I think looked good on his application.”

Kimberly Hernandez, a senior from Hutchinson, said she has come to know Brooks well through her time in the environmental studies program. Brooks was her adviser through the program and also was her mentor in the Dean’s Scholars Program for two years. Hernandez said she often met with Brooks to discuss graduate school options and her future career plans.

But beyond help with school, Hernandez said the person behind all the experience was what made him great.

“He is one of the most supportive and encouraging people I know,” Hernandez said. “No matter how terrible of a day or semester I was having, Karl has always found a way to brighten me up and rekindle my inspiration. He is a true mentor in every sense of the word.”

Hernandez said she wasn’t surprised when she heard about Brooks’ new position with the EPA. She said his new position will serve as a platform for his dedication to helping others and improving society.

One of the things Brooks said he was most looking forward to is helping the EPA become a more prominent force in the area.

“It’s a chance to improve visibility and effectiveness of the EPA here in this region,” he said. “I’m looking forward to working with the staff to do what we’re supposed to do, which is to leave the Earth a better place than we found it for future generations.”

— Edited by Drew Anderson