Colorado eye surgeon sets the record straight on EPA appointment: “I didn’t get my degree out of a Cracker Jack box”

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice

The New York Times ran its verdict last week on Dr. Brian C. Joondeph’s EPA appointment. Just an eye doctor. Kyle Clark said the same thing.

Joondeph is a Colorado retina surgeon and political commentator. Trump’s EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin tapped him for the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee—CASAC. The Times piece, published March 12, went after his qualifications: no air-pollution peer-reviewed research, not a climate scientist, wrong kind of doctor.

Clark, a Denver television journalist, flagged the appointment on X. He wrote, “Trump administration appoints Dr. Brian Joondeph, eye doctor and longtime Colorado talk radio regular, to the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee.”

NEW: Trump administration appoints Dr. Brian Joondeph, eye doctor and longtime Colorado talk radio regular, to the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee.

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) March 9, 2026

Joondeph noticed.

“The New York Times, at least, they called me an ophthalmologist—which is more than Kyle Clark. I’m just an eye doctor.”

Joondeph told RMV the criticism missed the point—and the credentials.

“I am also a physician scientist. I’ve been involved in clinical research for over 30 years. Well over a hundred clinical trials. I’ve written papers—95 published papers in my field, not just a few as the New York Times said.”

What the Times didn’t mention: Cornell undergrad. Northwestern med school. A year of internship, three-year residency, fellowship at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami—rated the country’s top eye hospital for 25 years running.

“The credentials are there.” Joondeph added, “I didn’t get my degree out of a Cracker Jack box.”

It started with a midlife detour. Joondeph went back to school around 2010 for a master’s in healthcare leadership at DU — “instead of a girlfriend or a motorcycle,” he joked. The writing habit that grew out of it eventually landed him in the CO2 Coalition, a national nonprofit. They nominated him for the committee last year.

“I thought, why not? I’ll throw my hat in the ring and see what happens,” he said. “It’s sort of like the accidental committee member—but I’m honored to be considered and thought to be worthy of such a position.”

He didn’t even know the committee was required to have a physician on it when he accepted the nomination. EPA officials vetted him. He got the call.

Joondeph won’t pretend to be a climate scientist. He doesn’t think that’s the job.

“I don’t bring the climate science expertise that a true climate scientist has,” he said, “but I bring a different perspective. Let’s look at the bigger picture here. What are the risks? What are the benefits? And let’s make sure we don’t cause harm.”

That medical philosophy, he said, is exactly what the committee needs. As a retina surgeon, Joondeph has spent decades applying it. He said that same framework applies to climate and energy policy.

“When faced with decisions, look at the risks, look at the benefits, look at the alternatives—and first, do no harm. I’m hoping I can bring my medical ethos to big government bureaucracy.”

Ask him who belongs in these roles and he’ll quote Buckley.

“Buckley was quoted as saying he’d rather be governed by the first 535 names in the Boston phone book compared to the entire faculty of Harvard. The average Joe probably has more common sense than some of the tenured professors.”

The evidence, he said, is everywhere.

“Look at the problems they’ve caused. Look how COVID was handled. $38 trillion of national debt, the out-of-control regulatory system, the healthcare system, the pharmaceutical industry—the so-called credentialed class have been in charge. Look at what we’ve gotten.”

CO2 classification has been a political football for years—declared a pollutant under Obama, reversed under Trump. Joondeph said it may come up with CASAC.

“If CO2 is declared a pollutant, then it can be regulated,” he said, “and all human activity can be regulated, because we all produce CO2.”

None of this means he wants dirty air. Nobody does, he said. Wind and solar have a role—just not the whole role. He had an analogy.

“I can have a garden in my backyard, grow tomatoes and have great bruschetta. But I still have to go to the grocery store. I can grow the tomatoes and the basil, but I need salt and pepper and mozzarella and a baguette and some olive oil. And those things I cannot grow. Wind and solar can supply some things, but not all of it.”

Joondeph lives and practices in Colorado, a state he described as “highly regulated.”

“There’s a cost to regulations,” he said. “I’m a believer in the free market—and that tends to solve a lot of problems.”

His term runs two and a half years. He’s not expecting miracles.

“I hope to bring a common sense approach to clean air regulation. Maybe set it in a little better direction, at least temporarily. And hopefully that carries over.”