Deputy Secretary
Sarah Cottrell

Governor Bill Richardson appointed Sarah Cottrell as Deputy Cabinet Secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department in March 2010. Sarah served as the Energy & Environmental Policy Advisor to Governor Richardson from 2006 until 2010.
Sarah advised the Governor on a range of issues, including air quality, climate change, wildlife and groundwater.

She was the lead delegate for New Mexico in developing the Western Climate Initiative, continues to serve as the Governor’s Staff Council Representative to the Western Governors’ Association and worked with state legislators on the Governor’s legislative proposals on energy and environmental policy. Sarah helped facilitate the passage of the Renewable Portfolio Standard increase, Renewable Energy Transmission Authority, Energy Efficiency Requirements, several Clean Energy Tax Incentives, Green Building Tax Incentives, and the Natural Heritage Conservation Act.

Sarah graduated from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs with a Masters in Public Affairs and a concentration in science, technology and environmental policy. She graduated magna cum laude with Honors in Political Science from Davidson College, and studied Irish politics at University College Dublin.

She has worked for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Arlington, Virginia, the Grand Canyon Trust’s Air and Energy Program in Flagstaff, Arizona, and was an intern with President Clinton’s White House Climate Change Task Force.