Yvonne Chi

Deputy Secretary of Environmental Justice and Equity at the California Environmental Protection Agency

“Yvonne” Chi, of Oakland, was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom in July 2024 to serve as Deputy Secretary of Environmental Justice and Equity at the California Environmental Protection Agency. Prior to joining CalEPA, Yvonne served as a Deputy Attorney General in the Bureau of Environmental Justice at the California Department of Justice, where she worked on investigations and litigation related to air, water, and pesticide pollution that disproportionately affected communities of color and low-income communities. Yvonne’s previous roles also include serving as an attorney at Earthjustice and as a law clerk for the Alaska Supreme Court.

She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Evolutionary Biology and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.