A key member in the Trump administration who helped roll back air-quality regulations will begin a new job Monday at Ohio State University. Clint Woods, who previously worked as a senior appointee in the U.S. EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, will now be the director of strategic partnerships at the university’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. In his new role, Woods will help build external partnerships with the university.

A former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency senior adviser in the Trump administration who was instrumental in the rollback of air-pollution regulations will begin a new job Monday at Ohio State University.

Clint Woods, who worked with an outlier in the science community touting that some pollution is good for people to help upend long-standing environmental regulations, has been named director of strategic partnerships at Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, or CFAES.

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Woods is the first in the new position, which is being funded by Nationwide Insurance's foundation for a two-year term. His annual salary is $132,000.

"This position is part of our university land-grant focus to engage partners. We are growing public/private partnerships. The director for strategic partnerships will lead efforts to fully engage community members, stakeholders and other partners," Cathann Kress, the college’s dean, said in an emailed statement.

Woods was chosen from about 30 people by a search committee that included Kress; two other CFAES officials; Devin Fuhrman, a vice president at Nationwide Insurance; and Adam Sharp, Ohio Farm Bureau executive vice president.

"This committee provided feedback to university representatives who made the hiring decision. The Nationwide Foundation’s funding directed to the CFAES supports programs, research and facilities that work toward the goal of food security across the United States. We do not dictate to the university who is hired as a condition of that funding," Joe Case, a Nationwide Insurance spokesman, said in an email.

In his new role, Woods will be able to build a team of eight employees to “engage stakeholders throughout the state and earn their support for the educational, research and economic development capabilities” of Ohio State, university officials said.

Woods was formerly deputy assistant administrator with the U.S. EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, a position that he was appointed to in December 2017. He had a pivotal role in revamping procedures for National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone, particulate matter and four other pollutants, according to media reports. He also worked on the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule that would put a stop to improving fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles.

According to an internal email sent out by Kress announcing his hire, Woods prior to joining the EPA worked as "executive director of [Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies], a national association of state and local environmental agencies, including Ohio EPA and several city and county agencies in Ohio."

In his cover letter, Woods told university officials: “I have a unique combination of long-range planning, community outreach, environmental and agricultural policy, and grant and nonprofit management experience, including work to translate complex technical and scientific information into policy-relevant material for officials at all levels of government …"

“Clinton Woods will be a great asset to the university as he forms collaborations that will make for stronger partnerships for CFAES and, in turn, will strengthen Ohio agriculture as a whole,” said Sharp.

Environmental organizations at the national level have expressed disapproval of the college's choice for the position.

"Clint Woods was a key player for the historically disastrous environmental destruction campaign of Andrew Wheeler and Donald Trump, and no respectable institution should want to associate with that," John Coequyt, Sierra Club's global climate policy director, said in an emailed statement. "Clint Woods made his choices, and his alliance with corporate polluters is clear."

The hire came as a surprise to some at CFAES.

"The lack of communication through the school and the ambiguity in the statement in what even the job is concerns us a lot, considering his past,” said Brian Bush, a third-year environmental science major from Columbus who also is a member of the Ohio State Sierra Club Student Coalition. He said the organization plans to submit a statement to the dean.

bburger@dispatch.com

@ByBethBurger