Heather Zichal
Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change
Incumbent
Assumed office January 2009
President	Barack Obama
Personal details
Born	(1976-02-08) February 8, 1976 (age 36)
Political party	Democratic Party
Alma mater	Rutgers University
Profession	Legislative assistant, Public policy

Heather Zichal (born February 8, 1976)^[1] is the Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, serving in the Barack Obama administration since 2009. Following the early 2011 departure of Carol Browner from the administration, Zichal gained the general responsibility of coordinating the administration's energy and climate policy. Zichal previously served as a legislative director and campaign advisor to several Democratic Party congressional members.

Biography[link]

Zichal grew up in Elkader, Iowa,^[2] with parents Ken (a family physician) and Fran and a younger brother.^[3] She graduated from Central Elkader High School in 1994.^[2] She attended Cook College at Rutgers University, where she studied environmental policy and graduated in 1999.^[2][1][4]

While at Rutgers she had interned at the state chapter of the Sierra Club and was part of a panel interviewing candidates for U.S. House of Representatives in New Jersey's 12th congressional district.^[5] The support of her and other environmentalists helped Democrat Rush D. Holt, Jr. stage an upset victory over Republican incumbent Michael J. Pappas.^[5] Impressed by her sharpness, Holt hired Zichal, and she went to Washington, D.C., where she served as a legislative director for him.^[5][1] She held the same position for Representative Frank Pallone from 2001 to 2002.^[1] She then was a legislative assistant and later director for U.S. Senator John Kerry from 2002 to 2008,^[6][1] She also worked as an assistant for the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee.^[7] In these positions she worked on legislation to address climate change, reduce the country's dependence on oil for energy, and to protect American natural resources.^[8] She also served as a top advisor on energy and environmental issues to the 2004 Kerry presidential campaign and the 2008 Obama presidential campaign^[1][2][5] (having first met Obama when he was lost in one of the Senate buildings and asked her for directions).^[9]

After serving on the Obama-Biden Transition Project in its Energy and Environment Policy Working Group,^[2] where she achieved some public visibility,^[1] she was named to be Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change in December 2008, to serve as deputy to Carol Browner, who was named director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy^[8][10] (as such, Browner's position was also informally referred to as the "Climate Czar" or "Energy Czar").^[11] Zichal took office in January 2009.^[1]

When Browner left the White House in March 2011, Zichal took over the general responsibilities of coordinating the administration's energy and climate policy, now operating from within the U.S. Domestic Policy Council^[12] (the "czar" position itself having been reorganized away by the White House and its funding subsequently abolished by Congress in the mid-April 2011 federal spending agreement that averted a possible government shutdown).^[13][14][15] Zichal and the administration faced a political challenge; with Republicans having taken over the House of Representatives following the 2010 midterm elections, chances of the large-scale climate and energy legislation passing that Browner had worked towards were essentially nil.^[16][1][5] Instead, the administration intended to pursue more modest goals that could attract bipartisan support, such as reducing oil imports and promoting clean or renewable energy sources.^[5] Zichal's past experience in both legislative and political campaigning was seen as valuable in trying to achieve such goals.^[1][5]

References[link]