Melissa Hoffer is first ever Climate Chief for the state of Massachusetts. She joined the Biden Administration as a Day 1 political appointee, serving as the Acting General Counsel and Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She led the EPA’s Office of General Counsel through the transition until November 2021 and continued to serve as Principal Deputy General Counsel. Prior to that, she worked in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office as Chief of the Environmental Protection Division beginning in 2012 and was named chief of the newly formed Energy and Environment Bureau in 2015. Hoffer received a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law, certificate in environmental management from Tufts University, M.Ed. from the University of Massachusetts, and B.A. from Hampshire College. In her spare time, she raises a small herd of Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats at her farm in Barre, Massachusetts.
