Ana Mascareñas

Ana Mascareñas is NCEL’s Chief Program Officer. She brings extensive experience guiding teams on environmental and public health strategies that center justice and dignity for all.

Prior to joining NCEL, Ana served as counselor to the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and as senior advisor on environmental justice and climate change to the Assistant Secretary for Health. From 2015 to 2021, she was the first Governor-appointed assistant director for environmental justice at CalEPA’s Department of Toxic Substances Control, where she also led Tribal affairs and public engagement teams. From 2008 to 2013, she supported local, state, and national policy and communications with Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles.

In 2020, Ana received the American Public Health Association’s Rebecca A. Head Award, which recognizes an outstanding emerging leader from the environmental health field working at the nexus of science, policy and environmental justice. She served on the 2022 National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s consensus report committee that authored, “The Chemistry of Fires at the Wildland-Urban Interface” which describes unique risks to communities and frames critical information and resource needs. In 2023, she was selected as an Emerging Professional Inductee into the UCLA School of Public Health Alumni Hall of Fame.

She earned bachelor’s degrees in human biology and sociology from Brown University and a Master of Public Health in environmental health sciences from UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health.

Ana descends from a California farmworker family and generations in New Mexico, which grounds her work and values in collaboration, respect, and collective action. She lives in Washington, DC with her family and enjoys playing guitar, crafting, and fostering connections in the District.