David Morell

David Morell, PhD (Sonoma, California), a specialist in global environmental and energy policy, retired in 2007 as co-founder and CEO of a global environmental consulting firm, Specialty Technical Consultants.

Dr. Morell previously served as a senior official of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in both Washington, D.C., and in San Francisco. He was EPA’s first director of the national pollution permit program for wastewater treatment plants (NPDES) and then directed the Office of Transportation and Land Use Policy under the Clean Air Act. In San Francisco he served as special assistant to the EPA regional administrator. He also served as director of hazardous waste policy for California state government and as special assistant for toxics management for Santa Clara County, California (Silicon Valley).

He has had consulting assignments for the World Bank and USAID (in Mexico, Russia, and Thailand).

At present he is president of the board of directors for Sonoma Ecology Center; chair of the Climate Action Commission on the City of Sonoma; co-founder and board member of the Sonoma Biochar Initiative; member of the Climate Justice Committee of national veterans group, Common Defense; and an advisory board member of Gardens for Health International.

Dr. Morell has many years of experience in university teaching and research, including at Princeton University, Stanford University, Claremont Graduate School, Mae Fah Luang University (Thailand), and the University of California-Berkeley and Santa Cruz. He earned a BA in economics and international relations from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a PhD in public policy from Princeton.