Heather Zichal
| Heather R. Zichal | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change | |
|
In office January 2009 – November 8, 2013 |
|
| President | Barack Obama |
| Succeeded by | Dan Utech |
| Personal details | |
| Born | February 8, 1976 |
| Political party | Democratic Party |
| Alma mater | Rutgers University |
| Profession | |
Heather R. Zichal (born February 8, 1976) is the former Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, serving in the Barack Obama administration starting in 2009. Following the early 2011 departure of Carol Browner from the administration, Zichal gained the general responsibility of coordinating the administration's energy and climate policy and was an architect of what became the administration's politically controversial Clean Power Plan. Zichal previously served as a legislative director and campaign advisor to several Democratic Party congressional members. In November 2013 she left the administration and became a private consultant and a fellow at the Atlantic Council.
Zichal grew up in Elkader, Iowa, with parents Ken (a family physician) and Fran (CEO of Central Community Hospital) and a younger brother Ernie. She graduated from Central Elkader High School in 1994. She attended Cook College at Rutgers University, where she studied environmental policy and graduated in 1999.
While at Rutgers she had interned at the state chapter of the Sierra Club and was part of a panel interviewing candidates for U.S. House of Representatives in New Jersey's 12th congressional district. The support of environmentalists helped Democrat Rush D. Holt, Jr. stage an upset victory over Republican incumbent Michael J. Pappas. Holt hired Zichal and she went to Washington, D.C., where she served as a legislative director for him. She held the same position for Representative Frank Pallone from 2001 to 2002. She then was a legislative assistant and later director for U.S. Senator John Kerry from 2002 to 2008. She also worked as an assistant for the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. In these positions she worked on legislation to address climate change, reduce the country's dependence on oil for energy, and to protect American natural resources.
...
Wikipedia