Gina McCarthy

Gina McCarthy is Professor of the Practice of Public Health in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment. In this capacity, she leads the development of the School’s strategy in climate science, health, and sustainability; strengthens the climate science and health curriculum; and liaises with climate science leaders across the University.

McCarthy has been a leading advocate for common sense strategies to protect public health and the environment for more than 30 years. She served under President Barack Obama as the 13th Administrator of the EPA from 2013–2017. Her tenure as EPA Administrator heralded a paradigm shift in national environmental policy, expressly linking it with global public health. She led EPA initiatives that cut air pollution, protected water resources, reduced greenhouse gases and strengthened chemical safety to better protect more Americans, especially the most vulnerable, from negative health impacts. McCarthy signed the Clean Power Plan, which set the first-ever national standards for reducing carbon emissions from existing power plants, underscoring the country’s commitment to domestic climate action and spurring international efforts that helped secure the Paris Climate Agreement. McCarthy worked with the United Nations and the World Health Organization on a variety of efforts and represented the U.S. on global initiatives to reduce high-risk sources of pollution.

A longtime public servant, McCarthy was previously Assistant Administrator for the EPA Office of Air and Radiation, Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, Deputy Secretary of the Massachusetts Office of Commonwealth Development, and Undersecretary of Policy for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. In the EPA Office of Air and Radiation, McCarthy strengthened collaborative efforts with public health organizations across the U.S. to identify and manage indoor air pollution triggers that contribute to childhood asthma and other respiratory illnesses, as well as policies to reduce emissions and other airborne pollutants, improving fuel efficiency, promoting alternative fuels, and mitigating harmful exposures to radon gas. In Connecticut, she was instrumental in developing the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multi-state effort to reduce emissions contributing to global warming, which has spurred economic growth, improved public health, and decreased electricity prices across the region. During her career in Massachusetts, McCarthy advised five governors on environmental affairs, worked at both the state and local levels on critical environmental issues, and helped coordinate policies on economic growth, energy, transportation, and the environment.

McCarthy is currently an Operating Adviser at Pegasus Capital Advisers, a private equity firm in New York that is focused on global sustainability, health and wellness, and the intersection of these two areas. Previously, she was a Richard L. and Ronay A. Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at the Harvard Chan School from January to May 2017. She holds a master of science in environmental health engineering and planning and policy from Tufts University and a bachelor of arts in social anthropology from the University of Massachusetts at Boston.