Shelley H. Metzenbaum is a Visiting Professor at the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy, where she leads the Environmental Compliance Consortium, a project that brings state environmental protection agencies together to develop better ways to measure and manage state environmental compliance and enforcement programs. She also serves as Director of the Performance Management Project at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, convening public and private leaders from the federal, state, and local level to identify ways to make public sector performance measurement more useful. Metzenbaum is the author of several articles on the importance of strengthening the environmental protection system by making it more information-driven and performance focused.

During the first term of the Clinton Administration, Metzenbaum served as

Associate Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for Regional Operations and State/Local Relations. As Associate Administrator, she led the design and implementation of the National Environmental Performance Partnership System (NEPPS) and the Sustainable Development Challenge Grant program. Previously, Metzenbaum served as Undersecretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA.) As Undersecretary, she initiated a program that certifies private sector third-parties to oversee clean-ups of contaminated sites, greatly accelerating the clean-up of all but the most seriously contaminated sites. She also launched the "money-back-guarantee" permit reform program - where business agreed to pay higher fees to cover the cost of permit review and compliance assurance and the state committed to speedier action on permits. She also served as Director of Capital Budgeting for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.