Vickie Patton serves as Environmental Defense Fund’s General Counsel and leads its U.S. Legal and Regulatory Program. For over thirty years, she has worked with partners to secure national and state protections addressing climate and air pollution, participated in numerous successful climate and clean air cases to protect human health and the environment, and testified before congressional and state legislative committees. Prior to EDF, she served in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of General Counsel where she implemented the historic 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments and received the Gold Medal for Exceptional Service. Vickie is a co-founder of Moms Clean Air Force, a community of 1.5 million moms and dads and caregivers united against air pollution to protect children’s health. Vickie has received the Air & Waste Management Association’s Richard Beatty Mellon Environmental Stewardship Award, the Wirth Chair Award for Creative Collaborations in Sustainability, her local health department’s Healthy Community Award, and is a recipient of the 2023 William K. Reilly Award for Environmental Leadership. Vickie received a B.S. in hydrology from the University of Arizona and her J.D. from the New York University School of Law.
