It’s hard to believe that my last day before entering retirement is next Tuesday, June 30. The Climate Center’s Board of Directors and management team are making progress toward hiring a new CEO to take us to even greater heights. You’ll be hearing more from them soon!
Thank you, partners, donors, and activists for being an integral part of advancing accelerated, equitable climate policy in California. I’m deeply proud of all that we have achieved together over the last seven years.
Many thanks to our fantastic Board of Directors and staff, an insightful and committed group who I have thoroughly loved working with and from whom I have learned so much. Special thanks to our extraordinary Board leaders, Chair Lokelani Devone, Vice Chair Venise Curry, Treasurer Elliot Hinds, Secretary Susan Thomas, and Development Chair Lisa Whitescarver. Our successes would not have been possible without their leadership, generosity, and guidance.
My deepest gratitude goes to our brilliant, talented, and compassionate management team. Working with them day in and day out has truly been among the greatest pleasures of my career:
- Barry Vesser, our Chief Program Officer, is a 21-year veteran of The Climate Center. He brings strategic acumen, deep passion, and a great sense of humor (stemming from his Scottish heritage!) to help us all find levity in the toughest of times. Barry oversees our expert policy team, crafting cutting-edge policies, implementing multi-year strategies, and working collaboratively to transform them into law.
- These efforts require stable multi-year funding with donors who share our values and vision. Chief Development Officer Lauren Bourke leads our extraordinary development team of staff and board members to secure just that. She brings a world of experience and astute insights from her global travels along with her extensive philanthropy expertise. Lauren is wise, thoughtful, creative, and an exemplary teammate.
- Maintaining a balanced budget and a strong organizational culture ensures we can make the greatest possible impact. Lois Downy, our Chief Financial Officer, is awesome with an unusual combination of talents. She is both great with numbers and leads with a giant heart. Lois is constantly developing new ways to support our staff, ensuring tight fiscal management, organizational effectiveness, and staff well-being.
- Ryan Schleeter, our stellar Communications Director, has facilitated an impressive expansion of our outreach, from engaging policymakers through earned and social media to building a growing base of action-takers. A consummate systems thinker and manager, Ryan brings MOCHA to our virtual work every day, not coffee(!), but a framework for ensuring transparent internal communications and clearly assigned responsibilities, both of which have been key to our success.
As we face a rapidly worsening climate crisis, with a Super El Niño now driving more extremes, I am so grateful to turn the reins over to this amazing team and to help welcome a new CEO.
Thanks again for the incredible honor of working with you all over these past seven years. Together we will continue to cut climate pollution and advance an equitable and affordable clean energy future here in California, inspiring the nation and the world to greater action. We can and will keep on keeping on to secure a climate-safe future for all!
This blog first appeared in The Climate Center’s bi-weekly newsletter. To keep up with the latest climate news and ways to take action for a climate-safe future, subscribe today!
