Serena McIlwain was confirmed as the Maryland Department of the Environment’s 11th Secretary on March 2, 2023.  Prior to that, Secretary McIlwain was the Under Secretary at the California Environmental Protection Agency.  A native of the Washington Metro area, Sec. McIlwain also worked for the federal government as a Senior Executive for numerous Executive Branch agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as Assistant Regional Administrator for Region 9 in San Francisco, California, Performance Improvement Officer and Director of Continuous Improvement at U.S. EPA Headquarters, and Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy.  Sec. McIlwain holds two Master’s degrees.  She received a Master of Public Administration from George Mason University and a Master’s degree in Administration & International studies from Central Michigan University.​

Suzanne Dorsey was appointed as MDE's Deputy Secretary in June 2022 and is also chair of the Maryland Commission on Climate Change. Deputy Secretary Dorsey had been the agency's Assistant Secretary since February 2019, working with the agency's Water and Science Administration on Chesapeake Bay restoration and on major issues that require cross-agency collaboration on climate resiliency. She previously was executive director of the Harry R. Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology at the University of Maryland and also was executive director of the Bald Head Island Conservancy and Smith Island Land Trust for 11 years. Deputy Secretary Dorsey  has been a former commissioner of the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management and a professor at University of North Carolina at Wilmington and Salem College. She has her bachelor’s degree in biology from Drew University, her master’s degree in marine-estuarine environmental science from University of Maryland and her Ph.D. in oceanography from State University of New York at Stony Brook.

1. Erica Chapman​ (6/2019)
2. Chimere Eaton (5/2016)
3. Bill Kamberger (4/2016)
4. Gilbert Lookingland (3/2016)
5. Jarry Marshall & Dorothy Stokes-Wallace (9/2015)
   
6. Peg Nemoff (8/2015)
7. Laura Armstrong, MDE's Sustainability Coordinator (5/2015)
8. Suna Yi Sariscak (3/2011)
9. Steve Lang (8/2010)
10. Abigail Pascual (1/2010)
11. Brian Hug, Employee of the Year (12/2009)
12. John Boris, Project Manager (1/2009)