Gina McCarthy
Former White House Climate Advisor & EPA Administrator, Professor & Environmental & Public Health Thought Leader
The first-ever White House National Climate Advisor and former U.S. EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy is one of the nation’s most respected voices on climate change, the environment, and public health. As head of the Climate Policy Office under President Biden, McCarthy’s leadership led to the most aggressive action on climate in U.S. history, creating new jobs and unprecedented clean energy innovation and investments across the country. Her commitment to bold action across the Biden administration, supported by the climate and clean energy provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, restored U.S. climate leadership on a global stage and put a new U.S. national target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 within reach.
She is currently doing a climate fellowship for her alma mater, Tufts University. McCarthy is also an advisor for private equity firms on climate and sustainability-focused investments and is working with former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg on climate, as well. She is also co-chairing a group coordinating climate policies between the United States and India (the U.S.-India Track II Dialogue). She most recently joined the climate initiative America Is All In as managing co-chair. In her new role, she’ll promote the Inflation Reduction Act — spreading the word about the funding that's available and getting more people to tap into it.
Before joining the Biden administration, McCarthy served as President and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the nation's largest and most influential environmental advocacy organizations. Prior to NRDC, she was a Professor of the Practice of Public Health in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health where she served as the Director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment. She was also a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
From 2013–2017, McCarthy was the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Obama. Prior to her role as EPA Administrator, McCarthy held the position of Assistant Administrator in the Office of Air and Radiation. Prior to that Presidential appointment, McCarthy was the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, where she served as Chair of the Governor’s Climate Advisory Council. She also held senior positions in the administration of five Massachusetts governors, including Deputy Secretary of the Office of Commonwealth Development and Undersecretary for Policy for the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.