Nancy Helen Sutley led the White House

Council on Environmental Quality The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is a division of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, Executive Office of the President that coordinates federal Natural environment, environmental efforts in the United States ...

(CEQ) for five years during the administration of Barack Obama. She was unanimously confirmed for that post by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

on January 22, 2009. The CEQ coordinates federal environmental efforts and works with agencies other than

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

offices in the development of environmental policies and initiatives; the chair serves as the principal environmental policy advisor to the president. Prior to her leadership of the CEQ, Sutley served as deputy mayor for Energy and Environment in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, and as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's appointment to the board of directors for the

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a regional wholesaler and the largest supplier of treated water in the United States. The name is usually shortened to "Met," "Metropolitan," or "MWD." It is a cooperative of fourteen cit ...

. Mayor Villaraigosa turned to her to achieve his goal of transforming L.A. into one of the greenest big cities in America. Sutley retrofitted 500 of the city's oldest buildings to make them more energy efficient and imposed environmental standards on new large communities. Sutley announced that she would step down as Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality in February, 2014. In July 2014, she was appointed as Chief

Sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

and Economic Development Officer for the

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal Public utility, utility in the United States with 8,100 megawatts of electric generating capacity (2021–2022) and delivering an average of 435 million gallons of wat ...

. For her work in sustainability, she was the recipient of the Trailblazer Award at Verdical Group's annual Net Zero Conference in 2019.

Early life and education

Sutley was born April 20, 1962, in New York and was raised in Queens,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. Her parents came to the United States from

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. She holds a master of public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, and a B.A. degree in government from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Career

From 1999 to 2003, Sutley served at the California Environmental Protection Agency as deputy secretary for policy and intergovernmental relations.Hobson, Margaret Kriz (December 18, 2009). "Painting Green Goals." ''National Journal''. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context Database'', Gale, 2018-02-05. During that period she was the top energy advisor to then Governor Gray Davis, and supported a requirement for Los Angeles to produce 20 percent of its power from renewable sources. She was also a member of the California State Water Resources Control Board, and a member of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District board of directors. During the

Clinton Administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following his victory over Republican in ...

, she was initially a senior policy advisor to the San Francisco regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and later served as special assistant to EPA administrator Carol Browner, in Washington, D.C. Later, Sutley served as a member of

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

's Southern California Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender steering committee. She was also a prominent supporter of Senator Clinton's primary campaign.

Council on Environmental Quality

Upon being appointed as chair of the Council on Environmental Quality in January 2009, Sutley was the first prominent gay person named to a senior role in the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, took office following his victory over Republican nomine ...

. As CEQ chair Sutley defined her mission as translating Obama's green agenda across government agencies, preserving natural heritage sites such as the

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula, including parts of the Ea ...

, the

Everglades The Everglades is a natural region of flooded grasslands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orlando with the K ...

, and the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

, and putting science at the heart of decision-making. She promoted measures to conserve energy in the

, such as installing low-flush toilets, adding sensors that automatically turn off lights in unused areas, and introducing the use of recycling bins. As part of the Department of Energy's demonstration project showing that American solar technologies are available, she led plans to install solar panels and a solar hot water heater on the roof of the

.Eilperin, Juliet (May 9, 2014).
Solar panels here to stay atop White House roof
. ''Washington Post''. washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2018-02-06.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sutley, Nancy 1962 births American people of Argentine descent California Democrats Cornell University alumni Harvard Kennedy School alumni LGBTQ appointed officials in the United States Living people Obama administration personnel Politicians from Los Angeles