Mandy Gunasekara

Board of Directors, Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure


From the Oval Office to the Senate Cloakroom, Mandy has been at the center of the most consequential energy and environmental decisions of the last decade. She is a veteran climate and energy strategist, communicator, and environmental attorney who has a well-earned reputation for delivering results.

Most recently, Mandy served as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Under the leadership of Administrator Andrew Wheeler, Mandy set and implemented environmental policy priorities for the Trump-Pence Administration. She created and managed teams of political and career employees to shepherd key regulatory actions through the rule-making process. She also served as a primary liaison with the White House and other administrative agencies.

Prior to her latest EPA post, she founded and ran the Energy 45 Fund, a Jackson, Mississippi-based non-profit dedicated to informing the public about the energy, environmental and economic gains made under the Trump-Pence Administration. Mandy also worked as a Senior Fellow for the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Life: Powered project and a Visiting Fellow for the Independent Women’s Forum.

Mandy is a frequent guest on television and a prolific print media opinion commentator.  She regularly appears on Fox News and Fox Business, writes opinion pieces for the Daily CallerY’all Politics, and USA Today, and is regularly quoted in the New York TimesWashington Post and E&E News.

Mandy earned a J.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Law and a B.A. from Mississippi College. She’s a sixth-generation Mississippian who along with her husband and two children call Oxford, Mississippi, home.