Mississippi native Mandy Gunasekara will be tapped as the new Chief of Staff at the Environmental Protection Agency, according to the Washington Post. Ryan Jackson, the current EPA Chief of Staff, is departing later this month to join the National Mining Association as a senior vice president of government affairs.
Gunasekara has been a regular contributor to Y’all Politics and a guest on Supertalk Mississippi on political and energy issues over the least year. She also has had national appearances on media outlets such as Fox News and syndicated talk shows.
Gunasekara has been a vocal spokesperson on energy issues since transitioning out of the EPA and back to her native Mississippi.
She served as former staffer for Republican U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, and she is the founder and president of the Energy 45 Fund, a Jackson, Mississippi based 501(c)(4) non-profit educational organization dedicated to informing the public about the environmental and economic gains made under the Trump Administration.
She served in the EPA as the Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation until February 2019. While at EPA, she spearheaded many of the Trump Administrations energy policy achievements. Mandy was a leading voice on the the Trump Administration’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, and she orchestrated the repeal/replace of the Clean Power Plan.
Frank Corder
