Steven K. Koyasako, Special Counsel to the Secretary

Biography

Steven K. Koyasako is Special Counsel to the Secretary for Environmental Protection. He has over 29 years of legal experience with the State of California, including 18 years with the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) in hazardous waste regulation and site cleanup. Steve previously served as Acting Deputy Secretary for Law Enforcement and Counsel with the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA). Prior to that, he was the Acting General Counsel for Cal/EPA from while also serving as Assistant Chief Counsel at DTSC. Steve’s special area of expertise at DTSC was advising the department’s Site Mitigation and Brownfields Reuse Program. Steve also served as the Acting Chief Counsel for DTSC on various occasions.

Steve’s been a contributor to various publications including the California Environmental Law and Land Use Practice (Matthew Bender & Co., Inc., 1995); Land Use & Environment Forum, "Brownfields: Redeveloping Contaminated Urban Land” (Cont. Educ. of the Bar, 1995); and, Chemical Engineering, “Resolving Environmental Disputes Without Litigation” (The McGraw-Hill Companies, May, 1998). He’s also been a speaker on hazardous waste and Superfund issues on a number of occasions.

Steve is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of California at Davis (1974), where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior. He received his law degree in 1977 from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall).

Steve is the father of a child with autistic spectrum disorder, and is active in issues relating to autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, such as special education. He was a principal author of the grant application that obtained the initial seed money for the U.C. Davis M.I.N.D. Institute.

Executive Management Biographies