President Joe Biden has named former Colorado Speaker of the House KC Becker of Boulder as the Region 8 administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency.

The announcement was made through a White House press release on Thursday. Becker declined to comment.

Both U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper weighed in on Becker’s appointment this afternoon, praising her work and saying Biden made the right choice. 

“Speaker Becker is a leader in the fight for climate action and environmental justice,” Hickenlooper said. “There’s no one better to safeguard Colorado and the West.” 

“President Biden could not have made a better choice for Regional Administrator for EPA Region 8,” Bennet said. “As Colorado’s Speaker of the House, K.C. Becker led with distinction, passing landmark legislation to address the climate crisis. Her leadership will be an important asset at EPA as we work to protect Coloradans’ health and the West from the harmful effects of climate change.”

Becker, 52, served seven years in the General Assembly from 2013 to 2020, including the last two as House Speaker. 

During the 2019 session, Becker sponsored some of the biggest climate bills ever passed by the General Assembly. They included Senate Bill 181, which changed the mission of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from promoting oil and gas to protecting the environment; a bill that created the Office of Just Transitions to assist coal-energy workers find new employment opportunities (but which didn’t include any funding for it); a law to require certain electric utilities to reduce carbon dioxide emissions; and, a law that established statewide greenhouse gas pollution reduction goals. All were signed into law by the governor.

Becker began her legislative career through the vacancy route, appointed in October 2013 to replace Rep. Claire Levy, who resigned to become executive director of the Colorado Center on Law and Policy. Becker previously served four years on Boulder City Council, including as the council’s representative to the Denver Regional Council of Governments. She also spent almost seven years as an attorney-advisor in the Solicitor’s Office at the US Department of the Interior, practicing administrative and natural resources law, according to the White House.

In a 2020 profile, Becker told Colorado Politics she hadn’t decided what to do next, but added “politics is 40% serendipity, 40% timing and the rest is talent. You don’t know if everything will line up.” She said at the time she was most proud of the legislation she worked on with lawmakers from the other side of the aisle.

Becker is an attorney and until last week a partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer of Denver. 

Becker received her law degree from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College, a Master of Science in real estate development and construction management from the University of Denver Sturm School of Business, and a B.A. in government from The College of William and Mary. She is married to Miles Kunkel and they have two sons.

The Region 8 office in Denver serves Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming and 28 tribal nations.

This story has been updated.