From Wheatley to the White H UMass Boston Prepared Gina McCarthy ’76 for National Climate Leadership BY DEWAYNE LEHMAN
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egina “Gina” McCarthy ’76—former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama, and appointed by President Joe Biden as the first White House national climate advisor—will have you believe that she wasn’t inclined to apply herself academically before college and lacked a sense of direction. “I had actually been at best a pretty mediocre student in high school,” McCarthy said. “I was a little bit undisciplined, I should say, and I had fun.” McCarthy, always frank and somewhat self-deprecating when she describes her rise to top environmental positions in two presidential administrations, said the pivotal moment of her life was her decision to attend UMass Boston, although she had also been accepted to Boston College. She believed the university, with a downtown campus at the time, presented a more serious academic program and learning environment, discipline she needed for a college education. “Honestly, it really was one of the best decisions of my life, to go to UMass Boston. It changed everything for me,” she said. “It changed my trajectory.” When the semester started in September 1972, she chose to major in social anthropology because it was, as she said, a subject she didn’t know anything about. The decision ultimately helped to frame her intellectual approach to dealing with environmental issues and impacts during the course of her highly successful career. (And, she also met her husband that first week, while waiting for their class lists in the main administration building, the old Boston Gas building, and ended up in a French class with him.) “Within the first week at UMass Boston, I realized what I had sort of been missing,” McCarthy said. “It was a different way of learning
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UMass Boston Spring 2021
