McCarthy, Gina (Regina McCarthy), 1954- , American environmentalist and government official, Brighton, Ma., Univ. of Ma., Boston (B.A., 1976), Tufts Univ. (M.S., 1981). McCarthy landed her first position as the health agent for the town of Canton, Ma., in 1980. She subsequently served as Massachusetts’ Undersecretary for Policy for the Exec. Office of Environmental Affairs (1999-2003), and then as Deputy Secretary of the Office of Commonwealth Development (2003-04). From 2004-09, she served as the Commissioner of the Connecticut Dept. of Environmental Protection, where she spearheaded the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. She next joined the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as Asst. Administrator for its Office of Art and Radiation (2009-13). President Barack Obamanominated her to serve as the director of the EPA in 2013, but Republican Senators stalled her confirmation for 143 days. As the EPA director, she tightened environmental regulations, including writing new clean power regulations that were the subject of several lawsuits After serving in the Obama administration, McCarthy was named the director of the new Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard’s Chan School (Harvard C-CHANGE) in May 2018. In November 2019, she was named president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, effective January 2020, but resigned that position in late December 2020 to serve as President Joseph Biden’s National Climate Advisor, a newly created role.
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