Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday announced Lisa Garcia as the new commissioner of the city Department of Environmental Protection.
In addition, Mamdani announced Sharun Goodwin as commissioner of the Department of Probation and Yume Kitasei as the commissioner of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
“Each of these New Yorkers shares a common commitment to service, a desire to place the city and its needs before their own and a real ambition to deepen what New Yorkers expect from their government,” Mamdani said.
Garcia previously served as the Region 2 administrator for the federal Environmental Protection Agency under President Joe Biden. In that role, she oversaw matters involving New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and eight Tribal Nations.
In recent years, Garcia has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s gutting of the EPA. She has marched to protest the cuts to staffing and funding.
A lawyer by training, Garcia has worked in environmental and climate advocacy positions throughout her career, including at the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the environmental law nonprofit Earthjustice. As commissioner, she said she’d focus on delivering service equitably across neighborhoods and making investments to address climate impacts.
“I know we’re under a crunch and we lost federal funding, but we’re gonna be really active in making sure that the work gets done,” she said. “We will make sure New Yorkers will not feel any squeeze or any problems.”
Garcia will succeed current DEP Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala, who announced last week that he’d be departing from the agency .
DEP delivers clean drinking water to New Yorkers through its vast network of upstate reservoirs and massive pipelines. The agency manages the sewer system, works to mitigate flooding and monitors air quality and noise.
Mamdani’s other appointees are also longtime public servants.
Goodwin has spent her career working in various roles in the Department of Probation, most recently the deputy commissioner.
“After 37 years of dedicated public service, I’ve worked in every borough of this city and those experiences have shaped my understanding of what this work truly means,” Goodwin said on Tuesday. “My experience has taught me probation is not simply about supervision. It is about accountability and opportunity. It is about public safety through human dignity and investments in our communities. It is about protecting our neighborhoods while helping individuals rebuild their lives and give back to the city we love.”
Kitasei worked within the de Blasio and Adams administrations and as a staffer in the City Council. At DCAS, she will oversee city government’s workforce policies, public properties and efforts to reduce carbon emissions within the government’s physical footprint.
“Public service is about building the future, not tending the status quo,” Kitasei said. “If you want to improve city government, you can’t do it without the Department Citywide Administrative Services.”
Additional reporting by Katie Honan.
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