Alum Melissa Hoffer 84F Joins Environmental Protection Agency as Key Member of Incoming Leadership Team

The Environmental Protection Agency announced key members of the agency’s incoming leadership team who will advance the Biden-Harris administration’s agenda to tackle the climate crisis, advance environmental justice, and create clean energy jobs. Hampshire College alum Melissa Hoffer 84F will serve as the EPA’s acting general counsel and principal deputy general counsel.

Of the appointment, Hoffer says, “there is so much important work to be done to advance environmental justice, protect our communities, restore scientific integrity and tackle climate change, and I am honored and eager to engage those efforts in my new role.”

Prior to joining the EPA, Hoffer was with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, where she served as the chief of the Energy and Environment Bureau. In 2020, Hoffer 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. Hoffer also represented detainees held at Guantánamo and is among the attorneys who contributed powerful personal narratives to the book Guantánamo Lawyers.

“One thing that Hampshire taught me is that with the privilege of education comes obligation,” she says. “We have an obligation to put our knowledge to work in the world.”