Dr. Dennis Leaf Biography

Dr. Dennis Leaf

Dr. Dennis Leaf is senior adviser for international programs in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality in Washington, DC.  He provides advice to senior management on a variety of international efforts aimed at reducing conventional pollutants and greenhouse gases through the deployment of clean fuels and vehicle technologies, including clean diesel. This international work includes current projects with both the Chinese State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) and the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau related to clean fuels and vehicles. 

Mr. Leaf has been at EPA for 25 years, 18 years of which have been in the Office of Air and Radiation.  He has broad experience in urban, regional, and global air pollution issues, clean air and energy legislation, and domestic and international efforts to reduce acid rain, emissions from the transportation sector, ozone depletion and global climate change.

Positions held by Mr. Leaf include chief of the evaluation and international section of EPA’s Acid Rain Division, Special Assistant for Air Issues to the Administrator of EPA, Special Assistant for climate change and international air issues to the Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation, and legislative assistant for energy and environmental issues to a United States Senator. 

He has represented EPA and the United States governments in dozens of bilateral and multilateral meetings and negotiations, and has written and lectured extensively on clean air and energy issues. 

In the summer of 2006, he wrote the air quality management chapter for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s environment performance review of Australia.

Mr. Leaf holds a B.A. from the University of Maryland, a M.A. in International Affairs from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and a Certificate in Legislative Studies from Georgetown University.