John Arthur (Jay) Mullis

John Arthur (Jay) Mullis II serves as the Manager of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM). He has held this post from November 2017 until November 2021 and again from January 2023 until the present. 

As the OREM Manager, he is responsible for overseeing the environmental cleanup mission across the 30,000-acre Oak Ridge Reservation, which includes the Y-12 National Security Complex, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and East Tennessee Technology Park. During his tenure in this post, he is proud that his federal and contractor team delivered the completion of all facility decontamination and demolition at the East Tennessee Technology Park four years ahead of schedule and well under budget. 

From November 2021 until January 2023, Mullis served as the acting Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regulatory and Policy Affairs (EM-4) for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. In this role, he provided day-to-day oversight and management of the EM regulatory and policy affairs operations including infrastructure; deactivation and demolition; soil and groundwater remediation; tank closures; waste disposal; packaging & transportation; and regulatory, intergovernmental, and stakeholder affairs.

Mullis holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, and he is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of South Carolina. He completed extensive training and was qualified as a Nuclear Engineer while working for the Navy at the Charleston Naval Shipyard and was a fully certified Facility Representative for the DOE.

Mullis has more than 30 years of federal service. His experience consists of approximately nine years working in the Naval Nuclear Propulsion program at Charleston Naval Shipyard with the balance of his service working for the DOE in various assignments related to environmental restoration, decontamination and decommissioning, and waste management activities.