Brenda Mallory (public official)

On April 14, 2021, Mallory was confirmed as the leader of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) by a 53–45 vote in the United States Senate. She is the first African American chair of the CEQ. The CEQ is responsible for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and has influence over large infrastructure projects. In a statement, Mallory said, "By helping forge unity of purpose – across communities, across the country, and across government – CEQ will help our nation rise to the environmental challenges of our time, from climate change and the nature crisis to the environmental injustices that have plagued our country for too long."

On December 16, 2020, Mallory was reported to be the nominee selected by President-elect Joe Biden to run the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) in his administration. Reuters wrote that Biden's choice "signals a focus by the incoming administration on environmental policies that would aim to ensure improved clean air and water for poor and minority communities that have historically taken the brunt of industrial pollution, and on pursuing Biden’s overarching plan to fight climate change."

Mallory was raised in an industrial, working-class community in Waterbury, Connecticut, and then attended the prestigious Westover boarding school in Middlebury, Connecticut, on a scholarship. Mallory graduated from Yale College and then Columbia Law School, and started in private practice as an attorney before joining the U.S. federal government in 2000.

Brenda Mallory (born September 14, 1957) is an American lawyer specializing in environmental law who is the current chair of the Council on Environmental Quality in the Biden Administration. She previously served as director of regulatory policy at the Southern Environmental Law Center, and helped lead the Climate 21 Project.