Adam Bingman, adam.bingman@sierraclub.org
OAKLAND, CA -- Michelle Mascarenhas has joined the Sierra Club as the organization’s National Director of Campaigns. A dedicated champion of climate justice and community-led change, Mascarenhas brings decades of experience and knowledge to the movement.
In this role, Mascarenhas will support and manage the teams leading Sierra Club’s campaigns to address climate disruption, to transform the extractive economy, and to protect communities – particularly most-impacted communities – from pollution. Her work will also focus on ensuring access to the outdoors for all and protecting lands, water and wildlife in the context of the need to return lands to indigenous stewardship.
“Michelle is a powerful, committed and passionate voice for justice and community sustainability,” said Eva Hernandez-Simmons, managing director of Sierra Club. “Her work has made meaningful change in countless lives – and we couldn’t be more excited to bring Michelle’s leadership on climate justice to Sierra Club.”
“To meet the urgent needs of the moment, we need powerful movements that can transform the systems underlying climate and ecological devastation,” said Mascarenhas. “Becoming national director of campaigns is a dream job for me, because I feel like I can contribute to a truly transformative movement that can shift systems, help to move resources and funders to the frontlines, and to make sure we practice self-governance of our own movements for justice.”
ABOUT MICHELLE:
Mascarenhas brings over a decade of experience supporting the formation of the Climate Justice Alliance, where she helped develop the strategic framework for a frontline-led just transition from extractive to regenerative economies. She was a co-director of Movement Generation from 2009-2021.
She has also worked on land reparations with Black communities in the context of native sovereignty. As a co-founder of the Reclaim Our Power Utility Justice Campaign, Michelle has worked with environmental justice groups towards energy democracy. In the 1990s, Michelle worked with family farmers helping to launch farm-to-school programs and a national technical assistance and organizing network. She also gained valuable insights into energy supply planning and the need for workers to lead the transition in her roles as a union organizer and as an engineer doing resource modeling for the Southern California Edison Company. Mascarenhas lives in Chochenyo Ohlone land (Berkeley, CA) and will work from home and the Sierra Club’s Oakland office.
Mascarenhas will begin full time in March.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.