Dear Members and Friends of the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter,
It has been my great honor to serve as the Sierra Club PA Chapter Director for these last six years. In that time, I have had the opportunity to work closely with hundreds of volunteer leaders, participate in scores of outings, help elect dozens of environmental and community champions to public office, and recruit and support an exceptional staff who work with volunteers and community members throughout the Commonwealth to create a more just and equitable future.
Together we have helped each other through many challenges — from the election of Donald Trump to demoralizing legislative sessions – and we have celebrated with each other through many victories — from Pennsylvania announcing its plan to join a regional effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to transformative local organizing and policy achievements as part of the Ready for 100 campaign.
I am deeply proud of the work we have done together, and I am writing to say thank you and to let you know that I will be moving on at the end of November – but leaving you all in excellent hands.
The Sierra Club drew me in because of the potential for the organization to be a tool for true democracy and social justice – a place where people can come together to be engaged in the work of civil society. Institutions that function this way are so rare – and leaders who can steward them are equally uncommon.
As I prepare to transition out of the Pennsylvania Chapter, it has been a great relief to me that one such leader is already part of our Chapter and now poised to take over the helm – my Deputy Director Tom Torres.
I have had the pleasure of working with Tom for more than four years, and in that time he has gone from leading outings and training outings leaders as our Forest Watch Campaign Program Coordinator, to making our energy sector work more efficient and effective and managing staff as our Conservation Program Manager, to demonstrating compassionate and high-performance management skills with multiple staff across multiple geographies while successfully stewarding complex internal change management processes as our Deputy Director.
Tom has also served as our Clean Energy For All (CEFA) Coordinator, overseeing a pilot to break down silos and center movement building in our work, worked with me, Chapter leaders, and staff to recruit hundreds of new volunteers, managed our transition to a new online suite of movement tools, supported volunteers across the state to gain organizing and digital skills for more effective local work, and assisted the organization in creating multiple programmatic theories of change that center equity and push the Sierra Club to fight for safe and livable communities for all Pennsylvanians.
There is no one I could imagine who is more prepared for, committed to, or deserving of this position than Tom, and it has been one of the most gratifying experiences of my professional life to see him grow into the person and the Deputy Director he is today – and the Director I know he will be starting on December 1.
Thank you all for being in this community with me for the last six years, and please join me in extending a warm welcome to Tom Torres as he takes over the role of Chapter Director.
Congratulations, Tom!
Joanne Kilgour, Chapter Director
Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter