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Steve Owens
was nominated by President Joseph Biden to the U.S. Chemical Safety and
Hazard Investigation Board on April 29, 2021 and confirmed by the U.S.
Senate on December 9, 2021. He began his post on February 3, 2022.
Owens practiced environmental, safety and health law in Phoenix,
Arizona, focusing on the safe production, management, distribution and
use of chemicals and chemical safety regulations and requirements, prior
to joining the CSB.
During his appointment under the Obama-Biden Administration, Owens
served as the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Assistant
Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention
(OCSPP), appointed by President Barack Obama. Owens managed
EPA’s chemical regulatory and scientific
programs under the Toxic Substances Control Act and other statutes, and,
among other initiatives, made increased transparency for chemical
information and expanded public access to health and safety data on
chemicals a top priority.
Prior to joining EPA, Owens was Director of
the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, where he oversaw the
department’s policies and regulations relating to chemical safety and
hazardous substances, including the department’s role in responding to
chemical hazards and other emergency situations. During his tenure, the
department increased its emergency response capabilities and worked to
ensure the security of potentially at-risk chemical facilities and other
critical infrastructure in the State.
Owens was appointed to the Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) of the
North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC), by
President William Clinton and served on EPA’s
Clean Air Act Advisory Committee and EPA’s
Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee. Owens also served as
President of the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), the
national association of state environmental agency directors.
Owens began his career as Counsel to the Investigations and Oversight
Subcommittee of the U.S. House Science & Technology Committee, chaired
by then-U.S. Representative Al Gore. Owens later served as Chief Counsel
and then State Director for Senator Gore in the U.S. Senate. Owens
graduated with honors from Brown University and received his law degree
from Vanderbilt Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the
Vanderbilt Law Review.
Professor Catherine J.K.
Sandoval is
well known in the world of academia for her research on
telecommunications, antitrust, energy, and contract issues. She is a
tenured member of the Santa Clara University School of Law faculty which
she joined in 2004. She has had extensive experience as a leader in
numerous government organizations, as well as in the private sector. In
January 2011 Governor Brown appointed Professor Sandoval to serve as a
Commissioner at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) which
regulates energy, water, telecommunications, and rail services in
California. The California State Senate unanimously confirmed her to
serve in that post. During her term as a CPUC
Commission, she was appointed by the Federal Communications Commission
to the Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Telecommunications
Services. She served as Co-Vice Chair of the Telecommunications
Committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility
Commissioners. Prior to joining the academy, Governor Davis appointed
her to serve as Undersecretary and previously as Staff Director of
California’s Business Transportation and Housing Agency from 2001 to
2003. In that post she oversaw a wide variety of legal and policy
matters affecting California’s infrastructure and economy, and advised
the Secretary on energy, communications, and housing policy.
She has written numerous articles on Communications Law, Antitrust Law,
Energy Law, and Contracts issues. In 2010 she won the
SCU Public Interest and Social Justice
Achievement Award in recognition of her legal scholarship.
Professor Sandoval was the Director for the Santa Clara Law Oxford
University Summer Law Program in 2018. She twice served as the Director
for Santa Clara Law’s Summer Program on Human Rights Law in San Jose
Costa Rica.
Prior to joining the Santa Clara Law faculty, Professor Sandoval served
as the Undersecretary, and previously as the Staff Director of the State
of California’s 47,000-employee Business, Transportation, and Housing
Agency. From 1994-1999 she was a senior manager at the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) and was the Director of the
FCC’s Office of Communications Business
Opportunities. She helped develop the FCC’s
first spectrum auctions, worked on spectrum policy, and initiatives to
increase opportunities for Internet, broadcast, and telecommunications
service. In the private sector, she was the Vice-President and General
Counsel of Z-Spanish Media Corporation, providing legal advice on media
mergers and acquisitions, FCC regulatory
matters, and Department of Justice merger approval. At the Law Offices
of Munger, Tolles & Olson, Sandoval was an associate, focusing on
business litigation including securities, contract, and labor matters.
She clerked for Judge Dorothy W. Nelson on the 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals from 1990-1991.
Sandoval attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, the first
Latina in the nation to receive this honor. She graduated magna cum
laude from Yale University, earned an M. Litt. in Politics at Oxford,
and a J.D. at Stanford Law School where she served on the Stanford Law
Review. She hails from East Los Angeles and lives with her family in the
Silicon Valley.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
406 Dirksen
11/17/2022 at 10:00AM