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ashley-arax
CATF Expert

Ashley Arax

Senior California Policy Manager

About

Ashley Arax is CATF’s Senior California Policy Manager on the U.S. State Policy team. In this capacity, she works across all of CATF programs and partners closely with government officials, NGOs, community groups, and other stakeholders to facilitate meaningful collaboration and innovative policy design to address climate change, improve air quality, and protect public health.     

Ashley has nearly a decade of environmental policy experience in both the private and public sectors. Prior to coming to CATF, Ashley worked at the California Air Resources Board where she served as the Deputy Legislative Director in CARB’s Office of Legislative Affairs. In this role, she managed a team of 9 that oversaw all state and federal legislative efforts related to CARB’s programs. At CARB, Ashley was also lead staff covering federal legislation and implementation of the Community Air Protection Program, which represented a first-of-its-kind, statewide effort to reduce exposure in communities most impacted by air pollution. Ashley’s program experience at CARB includes work on freight and marine policies and regulations, including amendments to the state’s Commercial Harbor Craft Regulation. 

Ashley’s government experience also includes work at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, where she was part of a team that implemented funds from the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust and oversaw a grant funding the state’s first hydrogen fuel-cell ferry demonstration project.  

She also previously worked at RMI, leading a California-based team that served as strategic advisors to the state’s public private partnership focused on advancing the hydrogen economy, and worked on hydrogen-related industrial projects in the transportation sector.  

Ashley has a master’s degree in public health from UCLA and a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from UC Berkeley. She is a California native who was raised in Fresno, and after stints living in both Los Angeles and the Bay Area, now resides in Davis with her family.