Cynthia M. Ferguson

Cynthia M. Ferguson is the Director of the Office of Environmental Justice housed within the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Ms. Ferguson began her career as an attorney in the Division’s Environmental Enforcement Section as an Honors Attorney in 2000 and has handled a variety of challenging matters. In June of 2012, she was selected to take on the new senior level position as the Division’s Senior Litigation Counsel for Environmental Justice.

Ms. Ferguson has worked to ensure that environmental justice principles are integrated into the affirmative and defensive work of the Division. She leads the Division’s Environmental Justice Workgroup and the Division’s overall environmental justice strategic planning efforts. Her experience with environmental justice spans all levels at the Department and includes participation in the Department’s Environmental Justice Workgroup. She also serves as one of the Department’s environmental justice senior staff representatives on the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council chaired by the Council on Environmental Quality and established by Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, in 2021. She helped lead the Division’s effort to develop the Department’s Comprehensive Environmental Justice Enforcement Strategy, in coordination with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other client agencies, as directed by Executive Order 14008.

Ms. Ferguson earned her undergraduate degree, a BS in Mechanical Engineering, from Carnegie‐Mellon University and her law degree from the Chicago‐Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology.