I can’t believe it, but it’s true. I turn 70 this year, and after 47 years working to secure a better future for all life on our planet, the time has come for me to retire! This is a bittersweet moment: my official last day will be June 30, the end of The Climate Center’s current fiscal year.
As I reflect on our collective accomplishments, I want to express my deepest gratitude. Thank you for being part of The Climate Center community to advance accelerated, equitable climate policy in California. Your partnership, advocacy, and generosity have been essential to our progress. I’m deeply proud of all that we have achieved together.
So, what’s next? Our Board of Directors and management team are working with a search firm, the 360 Group, to help us secure the best possible new CEO to take our organization to greater heights. We’ll be circulating a job announcement soon that we hope you will share with your networks.
During my seven years at our uniquely wonderful organization, we have accomplished so much working collaboratively. Together, we have:
- Enacted a pioneering bidirectional electric vehicle bill (SB 59, Skinner), advancing the use of EV batteries to prevent power outages, cut reliance on polluting fossil fuels, and save Californians’ money on their electricity bills. We laid a powerful foundation for the Grid for the Future, one that is clean, distributed, resilient, affordable, and reliable.
- Catalyzed California’s nation-leading targets for natural carbon drawdown and other nature-based climate solutions, building on the historic law we passed in 2022 (AB 1757, C. Garcia).
- Reformed California’s signature climate program, Cap and Invest, to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions, playing a leadership role educating legislators to improve and extend the program through 2045. We also co-led the coalition that secured nature-based climate solutions as the only new priority for future investment.
- Secured billions of dollars in the state budget for local clean energy resources, extreme heat solutions, wildfire resilience, clean air and water, and climate-smart agriculture.
- Convened the annual California Climate Policy Summit and helped build high-impact partnerships, including co-leading the statewide coalition for a managed transition away from fossil fuels and another focused on natural, urban, and working lands.
- Hosted more than 70 webinars, produced more than a dozen policy briefs, published timely op-eds, and secured numerous press mentions, educating and inspiring policymakers, partners, and activists.
- Became an official United Nations Observer NGO and organized state lawmakers to attend the annual UN climate meetings to share accomplishments on the global stage and catalyze bolder action here at home.
We have also tripled our annual budget and taken the organization to new levels of leadership and excellence, building a strong culture of inclusion, accountability, collaboration, and respect. The Climate Center is the strongest it has ever been — it’s an exciting time for a new leader to take the reins and build on our successes!
As you know, I am deeply passionate about this work and will remain fully engaged as CEO through the end of June. I look forward to continuing my involvement as a volunteer after I retire. Stay tuned for more updates! And please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with questions or suggestions.
Thanks again to each of you in The Climate Center community for all we have accomplished together! Of course, there is so much more to do. Remember that every fraction of a degree of warming we prevent makes a difference for our collective well-being. Despite the challenges, we must keep on keeping on to secure a climate-safe future for all!
