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Mary D. Nichols
Biography
[EPA OAR press release - August 15, 1997]
Mary D. Nichols, EPA's Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation, is leaving the Agency as of today, August 15, to continue her career as an environmental advocate in Los Angeles. She will become the Executive Director of Environment Now, a private foundation dedicated to the protection of the California environment. President Clinton originally nominated Ms. Nichols for the top position on July 16, 1993, and the Senate confirmed her on Nov. 8 of that year. EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner has not yet named an Acting Assistant Administrator to replace her.
In selecting Mary D. Nichols to lead the implementation of the Clean Air Act, President Bill Clinton chose an individual who has spent her entire career dedicated to the preservation of our environment.
Before her appointment as the EPA's Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation, Ms. Nichols served as a senior staff attorney and director of the Los Angeles office of the Natural Resources Defense Council. She has extensive experience in environmental law and in administering public sector agencies responsible for civil litigation and environmental policy.
She was appointed by Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. to chair the California Air Resources Board which sets air quality and automotive standards. As a member of the Board, she served as coordinator of state and regional planning programs. She also acted as Secretary for Environmental Affairs, the cabinet-level agency responsible for air, water, and solid waste management.
She was appointed by Mayor Tom Bradley to the five-member Board of Commissions of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the largest municipal utility in the United States, where she chaired the energy conservation and legal committees.
Ms. Nichols was one of California's first environmental lawyers, initiating some of the first test cases under the Federal Clean Air Act and California air quality laws while practicing as a staff attorney for the Center for Law in the Public Interest.
She has been an independent consultant, providing environmental legal services to government agencies and private clients. And she also practiced environmental litigation and administrative law with a leading California law firm.
Additionally, she has written and taught widely on environmental and legal issues, teaching classes at USC and UCLA Law Schools, among others. She is a founding trustee of the California Environmental Trust, and is a board member of the Los Angeles 2000 Partnership.
Ms. Nichols hails from Ithaca, New York. She received her BA from Cornell University and JD from Yale Law School.