About the Administrator for EPA's Region 2 Office in New York

Lisa F. Garcia

Lisa Flavia Garcia serves as Regional Administrator for EPA’s Region 2 office covering New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and eight federally recognized Indian Nations. Garcia is an environmental lawyer focused on the advancement of environmental and climate justice.

Prior joining EPA, Garcia ran a climate solutions lab at Grist Magazine and served as Vice President for Litigation for Healthy Communities at Earthjustice from 2014-2019.

In 2009, Garcia joined the Obama administration to lead EPA’s environmental justice work, operating as Associate Administrator and Senior Advisor to EPA Administrators Lisa P. Jackson and Gina McCarthy. Garcia helped create and implement Plan EJ 2014. She led the design team for EJSCREEN, a key justice-oriented mapping program as well as the foundation for President Biden's Climate and Economic mapping tool. Garcia also oversaw the issuance of EJ legal tools.

Before 2009, Garcia served as Director of Environmental Justice and Indian Affairs at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Assistant Attorney General in the NYS Attorney General’s Office, and Associate Professor at Rutgers Law School.

Garcia also sat on the boards of El Puente, The Fund for NJ, Eastern Environmental Law Center, the David Rockefeller Fund, Governors Island Trust, Palisades Interstate Park Commission, and the Nature Conservancy.

Garcia is a proud graduate of Stony Brook University (SUNY) and Brooklyn Law School.