Healey will name former top aide Hoffer as climate chief

A large brick building with columns and a large gold dome on top sits behind a gate with steps leading up to it.

Photo | Flickr | Ajay Suresh The Massachusetts State House

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By Sam Drysdale from State House News Service

Massachusetts will become the first state in the nation to create a climate chief on the governor's Cabinet, and Gov.-elect Maura Healey on Monday plans to fill that slot with EPA Principal Deputy General Counsel Melissa Hoffer.

The Cabinet-level position envisioned by Healey will be responsible for overseeing climate policy across every state agency and "ensuring that climate change is considered in all relevant decision-making," according to Healey's team. The chief will report directly to the governor and Healey plans in January to issue an executive order with details around the position, an aide said.

Prior to her appointment in the Biden administration's Environmental Protection Agency, Hoffer was chief of Attorney General Healey's Energy and Environment Bureau. Hoffer joined the AG's office in 2012 as chief of the Environmental Protection Division after serving as a vice president of Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), director of the CLF Healthy Communities and Environmental Justice Program, and director of the CLF New Hampshire Advocacy Center.

Hoffer worked at the CLF for nearly six years, overseeing the strategic planning and budget for the New England environmental group and launched the foundation's Sustainable Farm and Food System Initiative during her time there, according to her LinkedIn.

Previously, Hoffer practiced at WilmerHale and clerked for Judge Joyce London Alexander in Boston Federal District Court.

In 2020, Melissa was inducted as a fellow into the American College of Environmental Lawyers; she received a 2020 Meritorious Service Award from the National Association of Attorneys General, a Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Top Women of Law award in 2013, and a Boston Bar Association President's award in 2007, according to a press release from the EPA.

"Melissa Hoffer is unstoppable. I'm thrilled to welcome her back to Massachusetts as our first ever Climate Chief," Healey said. "The creation of this position sends a clear message that Massachusetts is a global leader in the fight against climate change and that it will be central to all of the work we do across the administration. We're going to partner with our workforce each step of the way to deliver critical investments in cleaner energy, transportation, infrastructure and housing."