In the same hiring cycle that’s seen Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection bring on former Congreso President and CEO Carolina DiGiorgio as Chief Counsel, Acting Secretary Rich Negrín also announced the hiring of longtime political consultant Fernando Treviño as the first-ever Special Deputy of Environmental Justice under the DEP. It’s an elevation for the office in PA government to a deputy-level position. 

Treviño is a former at-Large candidate for Philadelphia City Council in 2019, has a long career in political organizing and grassroots campaign building. 

Between his city council run and hiring at the DEP, Treviño was the deputy national political director for the short-lived 2020 presidential campaign of businessman and climate investor Tom Steyer, and the regional political director of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. The latter organization fights against Republican gerrymandering on a national scale and is run by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Before 2019, Treviño was director of constituency outreach and partnerships at For Our Future, which builds campaigns across PA for community issues, and worked for three years at the City of Philadelphia under Mayor Michael Nutter.

He was the deputy executive director of what was then called the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant and Multicultural Affairs. When Mayor Jim Kenney was first elected in 2016, Treviño served as a transition advisor for what is now called the Office of Immigrant Affairs.

His first national campaign experience came as President Barack Obama sought reelection in 2012, and Treviño was the state director for the campaign’s Operation Vote.

Since 2016, Treviño has also run his own consulting firm, Treviño Consulting LLC, which focuses on elevating clients to an international profile with a specialization helping Latin American clients find marketing success in the U.S.

As a special deputy at the DEP’s Office of Environmental Justice, Treviño will be the leader in making sure disadvantaged communities across the Commonwealth develop environmental awareness and will be involved in the department’s permitting process. 

The office’s three main pillars are minimizing adverse environmental impacts on disadvantaged communities, empowering them by giving them a voice in state government, and fostering economic opportunities within them through the lens of environmental justice.

With Treviño at the helm, Negrín is poised to take the office to new heights in the DEP.