Capitol Spotlight: Marie Liu, Fearless Advocacy

In Marie Liu’s family, asking questions wasn’t a phase children grew out of. It was practically a family tradition.

Her father was a sociologist. Her mother was a teacher. Dinner-table conversations often revolved around understanding not just whether something worked, but why. Liu carried that instinct with her into college, earning a B.A. in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz and a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley before heading to graduate school, where she planned to become a scientist.

Instead, curiosity led her somewhere else.

An accidental encounter with a California Senate Fellows brochure launched a career that would take her deep into the halls of the Capitol, where she spent more than two decades helping shape California’s environmental policy.

“I realized this is a place where you can be constantly curious,” Liu said. “You’re always learning something new.”

For someone interested in the intersection of science, decision-making and public service, the Capitol offered something she hadn’t expected: a chance to see ideas translated into real-world outcomes.

“We’re making decisions that have the ability to make people’s lives better,” she said. “You can’t actually protect people without protecting the world that they live in.”

Today, as a lobbyist representing environmental and environmental justice organizations at Fearless Advocacy, Liu still approaches her work much the same way she approached science by asking questions, gathering perspectives and trying to understand how decisions affect the people who have to live with them.

That connection between policy and people is what has kept her in the field for more than 20 years.

Liu still recalls a 2017 hearing on California’s cap-and-trade program when then-Gov. Jerry Brown pointed toward the audience and delivered a warning about climate change.

“This isn’t for me,” Brown said. “I’m going to be dead. It’s for you.”

The moment stuck with her.

Before joining Fearless Advocacy, Liu built a reputation as one of the Capitol’s most respected environmental policy advisors. After entering the Legislature through the Senate Fellows program, she worked in both the Senate and Assembly, accumulating expertise on issues ranging from climate policy and air quality to water, forestry and environmental justice.

Her career eventually led her to the Assembly Speaker’s Office, where she served as environmental and climate advisor to then-Speaker Anthony Rendon. The role placed her at the center of some of California’s most consequential environmental policy debates and negotiations.

Carrie Cornwell, Staff Director for the California State Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee, who served as Rendon’s chief of staff and first met Liu when she was a legislative fellow, said Liu became one of the Speaker’s most trusted advisors because she combined policy expertise with a willingness to stay at the table when negotiations became difficult.

“She’s a good negotiator. She’s tough, and she’ll stick it out when the going gets rough, and it always gets rough,” Cornwell said. “She has the right skill set to just be in those negotiations.”

Environmental issues were among Rendon’s top priorities as speaker, making Liu a key figure in shaping the Assembly’s approach to climate and environmental policy.

“As a staffer, you’re an agent of the member for whom you work, and so you need to believe in the cause,” Cornwell said. “Marie is very much committed to the cause.”

Despite her influence, Liu has always been more comfortable behind the scenes than in the spotlight.

In fact, after more than two decades in the Capitol, she wasn’t sure she would ever leave.

“It’s such a dynamic place,” she said. “You’re constantly learning. You have the privilege of helping influence very meaningful decisions that impact people’s lives.”

But the demands of Capitol life eventually took their toll. The COVID years were particularly difficult, and as her children got older, she found herself wanting more time and mental space for family.

“What my kids would really like me to do is be home sometimes,” she said with a laugh.

She spent a brief period at the Energy Foundation before realizing she missed being closer to the policymaking process. That desire to remain connected to decision-making ultimately led her to Fearless Advocacy, where she now represents environmental and environmental justice organizations.

When Jennifer Fearing learned Liu was looking to return to a role closer to the action, she didn’t hesitate.

“Were there times where people underestimated me because, as an Asian female? Yeah, most certainly….Could I work that to my advantage sometimes? Yeah, most certainly.”

Fearing and Liu have spent much of the past 25 years crossing paths in the Capitol community.

“I felt her absence acutely,” Fearing said. “She really is someone who wielded tons of power within the Capitol and had the ear and the confidence of legislators.”

When word spread that Liu would be joining Fearless Advocacy, the reaction from Capitol insiders was immediate.

“My favorite text was from kind of a rival I’m friendly with,” Fearing recalled. “He texted me and said, ‘Oh Jennifer, now you’re just cheating.'”

Over the years, Liu has become one of the state’s most respected environmental policy hands, earning a place on Capitol Weekly’s Top 100 in 2023. The recognition reflects a career spent largely behind the scenes, advising lawmakers, shaping policy and helping with some of the state’s most complex environmental debates.

By the time she joined Fearless Advocacy, Liu had spent more than two decades building relationships, navigating high-stakes negotiations and helping shape environmental policy from inside the Legislature.

The connection between representation and public service is also deeply personal for Liu.

Her maternal grandfather, a Chinese American businessman in Los Angeles, believed civic participation was essential to belonging.

“He was very clear with my mom that the only way Chinese Americans would be accepted in society is actually for them to be involved in politics,” Liu said.

At the time, Liu wasn’t thinking about representation when she entered public policy. She was following her curiosity. Looking back, however, she recognizes the significance of being part of a generation that broadened perceptions about who environmental advocates could be.

As Liu settled into her career, she began to recognize something she hadn’t fully appreciated at the outset: she didn’t look like many of the people traditionally associated with the environmental movement.

An Asian American woman with a background in environmental science, Liu said she was often “an unusual face” in policy discussions about climate and environmental protection.

“People often didn’t think of environmental protection as something that is important to people of color,” she said. “But it absolutely is.”

For Liu, bringing more diverse voices into environmental policymaking has never been simply about representation. Communities experience environmental burdens differently, she said, and broadening the perspectives at the table leads to better policy outcomes.

Along the way, she also became accustomed to being underestimated.

“Were there times where people underestimated me because, as an Asian female? Yeah, most certainly,” Liu said. Then she laughed. “Could I work that to my advantage sometimes? Yeah, most certainly.”

Cornwell said those who underestimated Liu often learned otherwise.

“A lot of people have underestimated Marie Liu and lived to realize the error of their ways,” she said.