Charlotte City Manager Marcus Jones has named Sarah Hazel permanently to the job of overseeing the city's sustainability efforts.
Hazel has been acting head of the Office of Sustainability since last year, when Rob Phocas left for a job in the private sector. Hazel will get a new, broader title as the city's first chief sustainability and resiliency officer.
“Sarah has been filling this role, in addition to her other roles, for some time and has become not just a leader for our organization, but a leader for the entire community and a leader in this field,” Jones said in a press release.
Hazel takes over as the city plots how to meet the goals of the city council's Strategic Energy Action Plan. It calls for eliminating carbon emissions from city buildings and vehicles by 2030 and helping Charlotte become a low-carbon city by 2050, in both the public and private sectors.
Hazel has worked in the city manager's office for six years and previously worked on special projects and policy and program development. She has a bachelor’s degree in government and English from Lafayette College and a master’s degree in public administration from UNC-Chapel Hill.