Charting the important players at DEC

Peter Walke

Chief of Staff

Peter Walke serves as the chief of staff to Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos. Prior to joining DEC, he was the assistant secretary for the Environment in the Office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Walke entered state government through the Empire Fellowship program in 2013. Before entering state service, he served for nine years as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy from 2004-2013. He deployed twice in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kenneth P. Lynch

Executive Deputy Commissioner

Kenneth P. Lynch was appointed executive deputy commissioner of NYSDEC in March 2016. Prior to this appointment, Lynch served as DEC’s Region 7 director since 1997. As executive deputy, he assists Commissioner Seggos with oversight of all DEC programs across New York State. Lynch’s work has included implementation of the 1996 Clean Water/Clean Air Environmental Bond Act, negotiation and implementation of the Amended Consent Judgment to address Onondaga Lake wastewater issues, and negotiation of a Consent Decree with Honeywell to implement the remediation of hazardous waste in Onondaga Lake. He has also worked on the implementation of several brownfields projects in Central New York. Lynch has represented the DEC commissioner and the governor on the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Commission, and Onondaga Lake Partnership.

Thomas Berkman

Deputy Commissioner and General Counsel

Thomas Berkman oversees more than 80 environmental attorneys. He joined the DEC in 2011, and has focused on the Clean Water Act and New York’s State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program; the Clean Air Act, solid waste, state land issues (including acquisition and management); wetland regulations; coastal erosion hazard area and stream disturbance issues (including storm response procedures); protection of natural resources; endangered species; brownfields; Superfund sites; Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; and law enforcement and energy issues.

Prior to his appointment at DEC, Berkman spent three years as an assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division of the New York attorney general’s office and has worked for national law firms in New York City and Washington, D.C. He also served as an assistant district attorney in Queens.

Jeff Stefanko

Deputy Commissioner for Administration

Jeff Stefanko began his career at DEC in June 2014. Stefanko directs all staff and programs within the Office of Administration. He also serves as the primary liaison with the Division of the Budget and the Office of Information, Technology Services.

Additionally, Stefanko is the commissioner’s designee on the board of directors for the Olympic Regional Development Authority and Natural Heritage Trust and serves as the designee and chairman of the board of directors for the Environmental Facilities Corporation.

He previously spent 17 years at the state Division of the Budget. The majority of that time was spent managing the budgeting responsibilities of agencies and public authorities in the environment, recreation, energy and agriculture areas.

James Tierney

Deputy Commissioner for Water Resources

Jim Tierney has management responsibility for all clean water programs, including sewage and industrial wastewater treatment plants; programs to address polluted runoff from condensed animal feeding operations, construction excavations and urbanized areas; water quality standards; stream classifications; and water quality assessments. This includes the management of multiple grant programs and coordination with the Environmental Facilities Corporation.

His portfolio also includes dam safety, levees, flood plain mapping and management, and the coastal erosion hazard area program – an overall area of responsibility that expanded dramatically after Superstorm Sandy. This includes the full array of flood mitigation and coastal hazard projects undertaken within New York in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers. Tierney also oversees water supply assessments and permits, the Great Lakes St. Lawrence River Compact, reservoir releases and drought monitoring, and the like.

Kathleen Moser

Deputy Commissioner for Natural Resources

Kathy Moser was appointed deputy commissioner in December 2011 and is responsible for DEC’s portfolio in Lands and Forests, Fish and Wildlife, and Marine Resources. Moser works on wide-ranging policy issues such as forest products development, marine fisheries, Adirondack and Catskills forest preserve conservation, habitat restoration, invasive species control, endangered species restoration and freshwater fish hatcheries.

Prior to DEC, she worked as managing director for strategic initiatives at the World Wildlife Fund. Moser held various senior positions at The Nature Conservancy in New York and in their international program from 1992 to 2009.

Jared Snyder

Deputy Commissioner for Air Resources, Climate Change and Energy

Jared Snyder oversees New York’s development and implementation of clean air programs and climate change strategies, including programs to build resilience to climate change and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. He also represents the department in statewide energy planning efforts. Snyder is currently chairman of the Ozone Transport Commission and vice chairman of RGGI Inc.; he represents the department on the Board of the Climate Registry and has served as co-chairman of the International Carbon Action Partnership. Prior to joining DEC in 2007, Snyder managed air and climate litigation in the New York attorney general’s office, and worked for the U.S. Department of Justice handling environmental enforcement matters from 1990-95.

Christian Ballantyne

Assistant Commissioner for Public Protection and Regional Affairs

Chris Ballantyne oversees law enforcement, forest protection, emergency management, permitting and regional affairs. Prior to joining DEC in July 2007, Ballantyne worked in the nonprofit sector serving as executive director of the Fund for Lake George, and as the Northeast regional representative for the Sierra Club. As such, he represented the Sierra Club on the governor’s Hudson River Task Force and the EPA’s Hudson River PCB Superfund Site Community Advisory Group. Ballantyne is co-founder of the New York State Apollo Alliance, a coalition of organizations representing labor, environmental advocacy, environmental justice, business and faith organizations supporting increased employment, energy independence and environmental protection.

Martin Brand

Deputy Commissioner for the Office of Remediation and Materials Management

As deputy commissioner for the Office of Remediation and Materials Management, Martin Brand oversees the operation of the Divisions of Environmental Remediation, Materials Management, and Mineral Resources. He also has a leadership role in the state response to emerging water quality issues. Previously, Brand was the regional director for DEC’s Region 3 headquartered in New Paltz, where he led all DEC efforts and programs in the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains area. He also served as DEC’s regional materials management supervisor, where he executed statewide policies and regulations for solid waste and materials management. A geologist by education and training, he has more than three decades of experience in a variety of areas including environmental remediation, solid and hazardous waste regulation, and oil and gas exploration.

Julie Tighe

Assistant Commissioner for Intergovernmental and Legislative Affairs

Julie Tighe oversees the Office of Legislative Affairs, as well as intergovernmental and external relations. Tighe was previously director of legislative affairs, helping to secure significant reform of the Brownfield Cleanup Program and a 10-year, $1 billion Superfund authorization, legislation establishing the Climate Smart Communities program in the EPF, and adoption of two constitutional amendments and the Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act. Prior to joining DEC, Tighe was the associate director of the Committee on Assembly Insurance, where she drafted legislation related to health insurance and health policy, and deputy director of advocacy and outreach for the New York State Association of Health Care Providers, where she managed state and federal legislative affairs and grass-roots advocacy, and developed the largest state home care political action committee in the country.