Ana Unruh Cohen

Biography

As the managing director of government affairs for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the NRDC Action Fund, Dr. Ana Unruh Cohen is responsible for developing and guiding federal advocacy direction with the president’s administration and Congress. Before joining the organization in 2017, she worked for more than 13 years on Capitol Hill, focusing on energy and environmental policy. Most recently, she served as the director of energy, climate, and natural resources for Senator Edward J. Markey.

Unruh Cohen’s Hill experience also includes working as the deputy staff director of the Natural Resource Committee Democratic staff; the deputy staff director and chief scientist of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming; and a legislative assistant in then-Representative Markey’s personal office. In addition to her time in Congress, Unruh Cohen was also the first director of environmental policy at the Center for American Progress.

Unruh Cohen holds a bachelor’s in chemistry from Trinity University and received her PhD in earth sciences from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She is based in NRDC’s Washington, DC, office.