The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, announced Thursday her departure from the EPA.

Jackson, who has been rumored by some as a possible gubernatorial candidate, is the former head of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection. She announced in a statement Thursday she will be stepping down from the EPA after nearly four years on the job.

Jackson told The New York Times during a brief interview Wednesday that she planned to do some consulting and public speaking in the future and that she had not begun looking for a new job. Jackson is rumored to be a candidate for the president of Princeton University, the Times reported.

Similarly, The Washington Post reported Princeton’s first female president, Shirley Tilghman, plans to step down from the post at the end of this academic year and that Jackson has been in talks with university officials about being a possible candidate for president, the Post reported.

Currently, state Sen. Barbara Buono, (D-18), is the only Democratic candidate who so far has thrown her hat in the ring to run in 2013.