Clare Mendelsohn, Deputy Secretary for Public Policy 

Clare Mendelsohn was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom in March 2022 to serve as CalEPA’s Deputy Secretary for Public Policy.

Prior to joining CalEPA, Clare worked for the U.S. Forest Service for seven years, last serving as Forest Supervisor of the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire/Maine. For 25 years prior to that, she worked as a civilian for the U.S. Air Force, holding a variety of environmental positions – cleanup, compliance, natural and cultural resources management, pollution prevention, and sustainability – at all levels of the department.  For 11 years (2002 to 2013) with the Air Force, Clare was the Director of the Western Regional Environmental Office and Department of Defense (DoD) Regional Environmental Coordinator, based in San Francisco and working all throughout the West. In this position, she provided regional legislative and regulatory review and oversight on all matters pertaining to the Air Force and DoD environmental and mission sustainment programs including regional engagement with state executive and legislative branches, other federal agencies, and multi-state partnerships. Clare also did a detail with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco in 2012, leading special projects in the Clean Energy and Climate Change Section of the Air Division. Over a 12-year period (2007 – 2019), Clare helped to facilitate and present at environmental security workshops throughout Africa with representatives from military agencies, civil authorities, academia, NGOs, the United Nations and the U.S. Agency for International Development. She also served on a U.S./South African National Defense Force team that developed an international guidebook and primer (2010) detailing principles and methods of partnering, collaboration and coalition-building.

Clare holds a Master of Business Administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, a Master of Science in Environmental/Engineering Management from the Air Force Institute of Technology, and a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Michigan Technological University.