Gina McCarthy

In early 2020, McCarthy started as president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

McCarthy held the position of Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation from 2009-13. Prior to 2009, she served as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (2004–09).

In November 2019 McCarthy was appointed president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, effective early 2020.

In late May 2018, Harvard T.H. School of Public Health announced the formation of a new climate and health science center - The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard Chan School(Harvard C-CHANGE) - with McCarthy as its director. As of January 2020 McCarthy became the Chair, Board of Advisors, of Harvard C-CHANGE. The center increases public awareness of the health impacts of climate change and uses science to make it personal, actionable, and urgent. Now led by Dr. Aaron Bernstein, Interim Director, the Center leverages Harvard’s cutting-edge research to inform policies, technologies, and products that reduce air pollution and other causes of climate change. By making climate change personal, highlighting solutions, and emphasizing the important role we all play in driving change, Harvard C-CHANGE puts health outcomes at the center of climate actions.

McCarthy was a Richard L. and Ronay A. Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She taught a course there in the Department of Environmental Health titled, "Environmental Leadership: Integrating Science, Public Policy, and Political Rhetoric". She was the School's 2017 Commencement speaker. On November 6, 2017, Dean Michelle Williams sent out a public notice appointing McCarthy as a Professor of Public Health Practice.

In 2017, McCarthy joined Pegasus Capital Advisors, a private equity firm, where she serves as an operating advisor focused on sustainability and wellness investments.

On March 17, 2016, McCarthy and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder testified before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform regarding the Flint water crisis. Snyder apologized for the state's mistakes. McCarthy, however, insisted the EPA had done nothing wrong and that "there is no way my agency created this problem", causing her to at times be shouted down by outraged members of Congress. In October 2016, the EPA's inspector general concluded that the EPA had wrongfully delayed issuing an emergency order regarding Flint, Michigan.

On September 11, 2015, 26 U.S. representatives introduced a resolution impeaching McCarthy. It was referred to the House Judiciary Committee and died.

On May 27, 2015, McCarthy finalized a rule under the Clean Water Act which proposed a new detailed and inclusive definition of "waters of the United States". Thirteen states sued, and U.S. Chief District Judge Ralph R. Erickson issued an injunction blocking the regulation in those states.

On June 25, 2015, McCarthy finalized the Clean Power Plan under the Clean Air Act, seeking to reduce coal use pursuant to the Paris Agreement. Challengers failed to get the regulation stayed by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, but on February 9, 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States voted 5-4 to grant the stay, the first time the Supreme Court had ever stayed a regulation prior to lower court review.

On March 4, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated McCarthy to replace Lisa Jackson as head of the EPA. Confirmation hearings started April 11, 2013. On July 18, 2013, she was confirmed after a record 136-day confirmation fight, becoming the face of Obama's global warming and climate change initiative.

The delayed nomination became the longest period on record that the agency was without a leader. Christine Todd Whitman, a former Republican governor of New Jersey and EPA administrator under President George W. Bush, stated: “It’s not about [McCarthy], it’s about the agency... Republicans lost the [presidential] election and they have to realize that this is the president’s choice of nominee. They can go after the president, but Gina McCarthy should get an up-and-down vote.” On July 18, 2013, the Senate confirmed McCarthy as the 13th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency by a vote of 59-40, largely along party lines.

She has served as environmental adviser to five Massachusetts governors, including former Governor Mitt Romney. From 2004 to 2009 she was commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. In this capacity she implemented a regional policy to trade carbon credits to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

She held several top positions in the civil service of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, including Deputy Secretary of the Massachusetts Office of Commonwealth Development (2003–2004) and Undersecretary for policy for Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs from 1999 to 2003.

Born in Brighton, Boston, McCarthy was raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1976, as a Bachelor of Arts in Social Anthropology. She later attended Tufts University, where she received a Master of Science in Environmental Health Engineering and Planning and Policy in 1981.

Regina McCarthy (born May 3, 1954) is an American environmental health and air quality expert who served as the 13th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2013 to 2017.