Climate Draft’s Post

Growing up in SoCal we were always aware of environmental issues - we lived in the ocean as much as we could and on land the effects of drought, wildfire and mudslides were obvious. Conserving water was always a matter of concern and periodically required by law. In college I studied Environmental Economics and it was almost entirely a matter of theory; “how might a cap and trade system work?" and "how can private markets be properly incentivized to create better outcomes?" Broad stakeholder capitalism was still framed in terms of political polar opposites - capitalism and socialism (sound familiar?). How naive. Now late in my career Elemental Excelerator provides me an opportunity to put everything I have learned into service for people and the planet - my opportunity to use 35   years of finance and ops experience to drive our organization's values deeply into the ways we support entrepreneurs and their companies, manage money and serve our employees. Welcome to the #ClimateMovement EDICT interns! My hope is that the biggest early lesson you’ll learn is that you can indeed #DoWellByDoingGood and that you will build a career leading your generation to better outcomes for the planet.

So excited to have Rosa G. join my team this summer as our Philanthropy Research Intern at Elemental Excelerator! My senior internship turned into my very first [climate] job after college – working for an incredible woman-led, environmental justice nonprofit Georgia Women's Action for New Directions (www.gawand.org) focused on the health of frontline communities surrounding DOE's nuclear facility, Savannah River Site. 🌱

My climate career started when I saw the damage we were doing to our own ecosystem in my home town in Hawaii - with invasive species and human inflicted issues cropping up each year. I was bolstered along the way by so many but shout out to Perri Kramer for being a rock and an inspiration.