Kate Gordon is the CEO of California Forward (CA FWD), a statewide organization dedicated to a more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive economy across every region of the state. Gordon has spent the past two decades working at the intersection of climate change, energy policy, and equitable economic development. Most recently, she served within the Biden-Harris administration as senior advisor to U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. During her time at the Department of Energy, Gordon led a variety of locally focused initiatives to help drive a more sustainable and resilient energy transition, including creating the Community Benefits Plan framework for DOE funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act; driving the agency’s efforts to site clean energy projects on DOE lands through the Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative; and collaborating with the White House to lead the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities. Gordon continues to serve on the Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board (SEAB). 

Prior to her time in the Biden-Harris administration, Gordon served for several years in California state government as the director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research and senior climate policy advisor to Governor Gavin Newsom. In this role, Gordon launched or led several initiatives to better integrate climate and economic development strategy across the state, including the Commission on Catastrophic Wildfire Cost and Recovery, the Regions Rise Together initiative, and the Community Economic Resilience Fund (CERF), now known as California Jobs First. As founder and head of California’s interagency “climate cabinet,” she led the creation of the first-ever integrated California climate budget as part of the Governor’s 2020 budget proposal. Gordon’s policy work in California earned her CA FWD’s 2022 California Steward Leader Award.

Before entering public service, Gordon was the founding director of the Risky Business Project, co-chaired by Mike Bloomberg, Hank Paulson, and Tom Steyer and focused on quantifying and communicating the financial risks and economic impacts of climate change on key U.S. regions and sectors. Gordon has served in senior leadership positions at several nonpartisan think tanks including the Henry M. Paulson Institute, the Center for the Next Generation, the Center for American Progress, and the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. Gordon got her start on energy and climate issues working at the national Apollo Alliance, where she ultimately served as co-executive director until the merger with the Blue-Green Alliance in 2011. 

Gordon earned a J.D. and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the University of California-Berkeley, and an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University.