Catherine Witherspoon advises ClimateWorks on the linkages between air quality management, short lived climate pollutants, and climate mitigation. Previously, she served as the program director for ClimateWorks’ non-CO₂ fast action campaign. She has 26 years of regulatory, legislative, and management experience in the air quality field. Ms. Witherspoon started as a student assistant at the California Air Resources Board in 1981, and eventually rose to Executive Officer (2003-2007). In that role, she managed a staff of 1,100 and an annual budget of $350 million. Ms. Witherspoon was directly involved in the drafting of the California Clean Air Act and California’s landmark Greenhouse Gas Solutions Act.  In the mid-1990s, she left state government and served briefly as an Expert Consultant to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Region 9), Legislative Director for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, and sole proprietor of her own consulting firm, before returning to CARB in 1999 as Senior Policy Advisor to the then-Chairman Dr. Alan Lloyd.  Ms. Witherspoon has a BA in Politics from the University of California at Santa Cruz.