David Cash
Dr. David W. Cash is Director of the Climate Action Accelerator at the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University. Cash served as the Regional Administrator for the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s New England office during the Biden Administration. Dr. Cash has spent his career in public service harnessing science, innovative policy, and community involvement to help solve challenges and seize opportunities at the intersection of environmental protection, public health, economic development, and equity. As Regional Administrator, Dr. Cash oversaw the largest investment in addressing the challenges of climate change in the region, and a realignment of priorities in order to better connect with communities.
Before joining the EPA, Dr. Cash was Dean of the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Prior to that, Dr. Cash spent a decade in Massachusetts state government in a range of senior positions in both Democratic and Republican administrations, working to transform the Commonwealth’s environmental and energy policy.
In all his roles, Dr. Cash collaborates across government and with community leaders and the private sector to craft and implement innovative science-based policies for climate action, environmental justice, clean energy, job creation, clean water, sustainable land use, waste management, and grid modernization. Dr. Cash holds a Ph.D. in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, a science teaching degree from Lewis & Clark in Portland, OR, and a BS in biology from Yale University.
The Salata Institute
The Salata Institute supports interdisciplinary research that leads to real-world action, including high-risk/high-reward projects by researchers already working in the climate area and new endeavors that make it easier for Harvard scholars, who have not worked on climate problems, to do so. Faculty interested in the Climate Research Clusters program should note an upcoming deadline for concepts on April 1, 2024.