she's commissioner emily loyd and the head of department of environmental protection of new york city and appointed by mayor bloomberg to head this agency in 05. the department is responsible for imagining new york cities waist water and treatment, drinking supply, handling hazard materials and emergency x toxicities and removal of those and enforcing cities air and noise codes. they also have substantial responsibility outside of new york city managering 2 thousand square miles of the hudson valley. prior to heading up this agency commissioner loyd served as executive vice president for public affairs at colombia university and was in the administration for ten years and commissioner for sanitation under mayor, jenkins and was ma developer at port an authority and commissioner for traffic and parking for the city of boston. emily, thank you so much. we are so glad to have your energy, your smarts to lead us to this tough topic this morning. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, susan. well, as the only - at least self identifying water system manager from the east coast, i had original

how many young people have learned to think my reading the exploits of port loyd and his complaints.laughter] we also remember the earth that challenged our assumptions, the scholarship that brought us closer to the events of our history, the poetry that we loved, or at least the poetry that we might recite to our girlfriends to seem deep. of course, we still hum the great songs by musicians in this room, songs that have been a sound track of our lives over decades. that is why i am so proud to have this opportunity to celebrate the contributions that all of you have made to our country. we have to remember that our strength as a people runs deeper than our military might, runs deeper than our gdp. it is also about our values and our ideals that each generation is called to a poll, and that each artist helps us better understand. it is also about the capacity of the arts and humanities to connect us to one another. in a nation as big as ours, as diverse as ours, as full of debate and consternation as it sometimes is, what the people we are here today remind us of is that colonel of o