Patty Zwarts, Deputy Secretary for Policy

Biography

For the past eleven years Patty Zwarts has served as the Assistant Secretary for Legislation for the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) and has had the honor of working for three Governors and six Secretaries. Patty started her work at Cal/EPA in the Wilson Administration working for Secretary Jim Strock and continued on in the Davis Administration working for Secretary Winston H. Hickox on a wide range of state and federal environmental legislation. Currently in the Schwarzenegger Administration, Patty serves as the Deputy Secretary for Policy under Secretary Linda Adams.

Over the past years, Patty has worked on countless pieces of major California environmental legislation spanning the issues areas of hazardous waste, water quality, pesticides, air quality, climate change, water rights and many other policy areas. Most recently she helped as part of a team negotiating the landmark California Global Warming Solutions Act.

Before being appointed to this position Patty served as the Legislative Director at the California Integrated Waste Management Board for five years and previously worked as a legislative analyst at the State Water Resources Control Board for six years. Patty got her start in politics in the educational arena by working as a student lobbyist for the Community College Student Lobby and was appointed as the student representative to the California Postsecondary Education Commission under Governor Jerry Brown.

Patty graduated from Sacramento State University in 1985 with a B.A. in Government and a concentration in Public Health Microbiology. She received an A.A. in Animal Health Technology from Hartnell College in 1981. Patty is originally from the Netherlands and lives in Sacramento with her husband Raffy and three children.

Executive Management Biographies