Elizabeth Biser has twenty years of experience in bringing people together around complex policy issues.
She previously served as the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality under Governor Roy Cooper from June 2021 until September 2024. She was the first woman confirmed to serve as DEQ Secretary.
In August of 2023, she was elected by her peers to serve as President of the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), the national nonprofit, nonpartisan association of state and territorial environmental agency leaders.
As DEQ Secretary, she oversaw the state agency whose mission is to protect North Carolina’s environment and natural resources. The organization has an annual base budget of $300 million and has over 1600 employees located in offices from the mountains to the coast. The agency administers regulatory and public assistance programs aimed at protecting the quality of North Carolina’s air, water and land, its coastal resources and fisheries, and the public’s health.
Under her leadership, DEQ developed the Action Strategy for PFAS and took proactive steps to prepare water systems for federal drinking water limits. She led DEQ’s efforts to propose state groundwater and surface water limits to reduce the amount of PFAS entering the environment and ensure residents are not paying the entire cost of cleaning up PFAS contamination. She also joined with her counterparts in New Mexico and New Jersey to petition the Environmental Protection Agency to list four PFAS compounds as Hazardous Air Pollutants.
She successfully oversaw the implementation of over $6.5 billion in state and federal investments to improve water and sewer infrastructure in communities throughout the state. Biser also led the Department’s data modernization initiative, and led the effort to improve the agency’s vacancy rate from 23 percent to 14 percent.
As Secretary, Biser testified before the Senate EPW Committee numerous times on circular economy, PFAS and infrastructure, and has worked with states across the country to address these issues.
She previously served as the Director of Legislative & Intergovernmental Affairs when the agency was known as the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, where she played a primary role in securing $134 million in funding for the design and construction of the Green Square Complex in downtown Raleigh, which includes the Nature Research Center and a LEED-certified headquarters for North Carolina’s environmental agency.
She previously served as the Vice President of Policy & Public Affairs at The Recycling Partnership, a national nonprofit whose mission is to improve and transform recycling in order to make our communities, economy and planet healthier. There, she played a leading role in the Circular Economy Accelerator, an initiative that convenes leaders across the value chain to devise policy solutions to solve the challenges of the U.S. residential recycling.
A proud Tar Heel, Elizabeth received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Master of Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Elizabeth lives with her daughter in Raleigh. When not working on environmental issues, you can find her reading a book at her favorite coffee shop.
Shrikar Nunna
Government Affairs Advisor
Shrikar most recently served as the Director of Legislative Affairs at the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.
In this role, he managed a comprehensive advocacy strategy for environmental policies, including air, land, and water quality, water infrastructure, energy, PFAS, and flood resiliency. During his tenure, he oversaw the largest increase to DEQ’s budget since the Great Recession and negotiated numerous policy bills to help maintain a healthy environment and healthy economy in North Carolina.
He also oversaw the development of the NC Flood Resiliency Blueprint, a first-of-its-kind initiative to use the best available science and data to create a statewide planning process, tools, and strategies to help North Carolina communities be more resilient to flooding.
After beginning at DEQ as a Legislative Affairs Intern, he went on to hold various roles in the agency, including Legislative Liaison and Special Assistant to the Secretary.
Shrikar also serves on the Board of North Carolina Asian Americans Together, a nonprofit organization focused on fostering community among Asian Americans through civic engagement, leadership development, grassroots mobilization, and political participation.
He is a proud graduate of NC State University, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering. When he’s not working, you can probably find him cooking, traveling, or building Legos with the help of his cats.