Now Reading
Nobel Peace Prize Winner Taps Sierra Club Leader to Direct U.S. Office
Nobel Peace Prize Winner Taps Sierra Club Leader to Direct U.S. Office
Published 06-08-11
Submitted by Green Belt Movement (GBM)
Prof. Wangari Maathai, recipient of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and head of the Kenya-based Green Belt Movement (GBM), today announced she has selected former Sierra Club International Programs Director Stephen Mills to lead the organization's U.S. operations.
Mills will be responsible for managing the Green Belt Movement's fundraising, partnerships, policy advocacy, and educational efforts throughout North America. In particular, Mills will work to build U.S. support for the recently announced Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies at the University ofNairobi. The Institute has been established to advance effective civil society engagement in Africa through organizational and leadership training and sustainable natural resource management through experiential learning.
The Green Belt Movement (www.greenbeltmovement.org) is a grassroots non-governmental organization that, for more than 30 years, has focused on environmental conservation and community empowerment in Kenya and more recently in other nations. Founded in 1977 by Maathai, the Green Belt Movement continues to promote sound natural resource management and livelihood improvement through tree planting, women's rights, civic empowerment and good governance training throughout Africa.
The Green Belt Movement International (GBMI) is a body that represents a network of registered branches registered to operate outside Kenya to promote the vision, mission and values of the Green Belt Movement. GBM International has two current regional entities: Europe and North America (US). The Green Belt Movement International seeks to mobilize resources to support the work of GBM in Kenya and to mobilize resources to influence international policy on issues of interest to GBM.
"My friend Stephen Mills is the perfect person to help us raise our profile and our effectiveness in the United States," said Maathai. "At the Sierra Club, Steve was one of my earliest and most passionate allies back in the days when I was being harassed by my own government. With his unique combination of political and communications skills, he brought our situation to the attention of many U.S. and international political leaders and journalists. He dramatically advanced our cause then and now he will help us take our initiatives to the next level."
An environmental community veteran, Mills spent 22 years at the Sierra Club, where he rose from community organizer to international programs director by engaging the Sierra Club's grassroots membership and the public on issues including development bank reform, responsible trade and global population growth. Inspired by Maathai's struggle in Kenya, Mills was responsible for creating the Sierra Club's unprecedented collaboration with Amnesty International on behalf of other at-risk environmental activists, directing highly publicized campaigns in Nigeria (Ken Saro-Wiwa), Russia (Alexander Nikitin) and Mexico (Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera). He also led the organization in addressing climate change by forging strategic partnerships in emerging economies, particularly in India.
"I am deeply honored by the opportunity to work for Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement," said Mills. "I look forward to bringing lessons from Wangari's and the Green Belt Movement's vital work at the grassroots level to new audiences in North America, and to policy-making processes on climate change, forests, civic engagement, democratization and good governance in the U.S. and internationally."
"For too long Western development aid to Africa has gone into the wrong hands," Mills said. "We've supported despots who have impoverished their own people. The poverty fuels instability, conflict and wanton destruction of natural resources. That's why it's so important that all Americans recognize true leaders like Wangari Maathai who offer such positive approaches to the future of the continent, particularly as it faces the enormous challenges associated with climate change."
For more information please visit www.greenbeltmovement.org.
Green Belt Movement (GBM)
