Ben Jealous will become the Sierra Club’s first executive director of color in January, the grassroots environmental organization announced Monday.
Jealous, the former president of the NAACP, was the Democratic nominee for Maryland governor in 2018. Since 2020, he has served as the president of People for the American Way.
In a news release from the organization, Jealous, who grew up in California, said trips to the Sierras with his parents and sisters as a child and reading Sierra magazine inspired his environmental activism.
“Too many leaders still think that we can only create a growing economy if we sacrifice people, the wild, and even the planet itself. This flawed ‘either/or’ mindset — with its roots deep in our nation’s history of colonialism — has led our planet to the brink,” Jealous said in the news release. “We now know better. We can both create more good jobs for communities that have suffered for too long and build a healthier, more sustainable future for everyone.”
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Cassidy Jensen over at The Baltimore Sun
