Dr. Gretchen T Goldman is the president of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Previously, she served almost two years in the Biden-Harris White House as the assistant director for environmental science, engineering, policy and justice in the Climate and Environment Division of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and later, as the climate change research and technology director at the U.S. Department of Transportation.
While at the White House and US DOT, Dr. Goldman led efforts to advance Federal scientific integrity, environmental justice, air quality and health, Indigenous Knowledge in Federal decision making, climate equity, and transportation system decarbonization and resilience.
Dr. Goldman has provided science advice and thought leadership across the science and decision-making ecosystem. She has testified before Congress and sat on the board of the nonprofit 500 Women Scientists. She served as an expert on the Public Health Rulemaking of the California Department of Conservation’s Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM). She has chaired the Air and Climate Public Advisory Committee for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and served on the UNESCO/AAAS Consultation Group on the U.S. science ecosystem.
Dr. Goldman is a prolific writer and speaker on science policy and has received several recognitions. In 2024,
Dr. Goldman received a US Department of Transportation Secretary’s Award from the honorable Secretary Pete Buttigieg for her work on decarbonization of the
transportation sector. In 2022, Dr. Goldman received the Young Alumni Achievement Award for the Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and made the Georgia Tech alumni 40 Under 40 List. She was named in Glamour Magazine’s Women of the Year in 2020. Her words and voice have appeared in Science, Nature, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, NPR, and the BBC, among other outlets.
She holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in environmental engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a B.S. in atmospheric science from Cornell University.