Ben Jealous, named the seventh Executive Director of the Sierra Club in 2022, has served in roles from organizer to investigative journalist to president of two of the nation’s most influential groups pursuing equity and justice and protecting democracy and the environment. From 2008 to 2013, he led the NAACP as the youngest-ever president and CEO of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization and launched the NAACP’s Climate Justice Program. More recently Ben was President of People for the American Way (PFAW). Ben began his professional trajectory as a reporter and managing editor at the black-owned community newspaper, the Jackson Advocate, exposing “cancer clusters” in Mississippi’s rural communities caused by industrial pollution. He has also been a partner at one of the nation’s premier ESG venture capital firms, has won many awards, served on the boards of the Environmental Defense Fund, the Trust for Public Lands and the Wilderness Society, taught at Princeton (and currently at the University of Pennsylvania), and is a best-selling author, including most recently of: Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: A Parable of American Healing.