People and the Planet: Dan Sullivan and Alex Padilla

The MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative is proud to host Republican United States Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Democratic Secretary of State Alex Padilla of California for the latest entry in our People & the Planet lecture series. Senator Sullivan and Secretary Padilla will participate in a virtual fireside chat on "government action on the environment at the federal and state levels." Both our distinguished guests have championed successful environmental legislation and will share their experiences and their views on the prospects for bipartisan action on major environmental challenges, the roles of regulatory and legislative approaches to those challenges, and the different levers for policy action available to the federal government and the states.

This free event will also serve as the keynote to a two-day workshop on "Plastics and the Environment: Science Meets Public Policy." Tickets to the workshop can be purchased here.

Dan Sullivan was sworn in as Alaska’s eighth United States Senator on January 6, 2015. He serves on the Armed Services Committee; the Environment and Public Works Committee; the Veterans' Affairs Committee; and the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, where he is Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard. He is currently an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, were he was recently promoted to Colonel. He was the sponsor of the Save Our Seas Act of 2018 addressing the plastic debris crisis in the oceans and American coastlines, and is now the sponsor of the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act.

Alex Padilla is the California Secretary of State. He previously served two terms in the California State Senate, representing the San Fernando Valley. His legislative activities there included authoring the California plastic bag ban bill. He graduated from MIT with a degree in mechanical engineering and is a former member of the MIT Corporation (Board of Trustees).