Ryan’s beliefs are deeply rooted in nature. He was born and raised in Humboldt County, California amidst the towering Redwoods, rocky coastlines, rivers and mountains. He is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz where he received a B.A. in film/video production. Ryan has over 13 years experience making videos and short films. He has traveled over most of the continents of the world, filming and broadening his awareness of the needs of others. He volunteered in orphanages in Africa and Tibet and a refuge camp in Thailand. He made films to help these organizations gain support and to help enlighten others of their needs. It was while participating with the League of Young Voters in San Francisco, that he was truly inspired into political activism. Ryan is an avid long distance runner and is happiest when playing music with his family and friends. His favorite animal is the Narwhal. He channels his energy to video production so that he can communicate Green for All’s dedication to build an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Ryan is a servant warrior and his camera is his weapon against eco-apartheid.

Diana is the Director of Finance and Administration for Green For All, as well as a founding member of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. Diana received her B.A. in Social Welfare and her J.D. at Hastings College of Law. While she is not focused on Green For All and the Ella Baker Center, she is operating a private community criminal defense practice, and serving on the boards of Bay Area non-profits Machen Center and TURF (Together United Recommitted Forever.) This San Francisco native is also a real estate broker, supporting activists and other members of her community to empower themselves through homeownership.

Before coming to Green For All in 2014, Emily worked as an investigator specializing in criminal defense for 17 years and was responsible for all aspects of the family business. A Bay Area native and UC Berkeley graduate, Emily’s community commitment is evidenced through her long time work with youth and justice organizations. She’s a mother to two teenagers and is active in their educational and athletic pursuits.

Valerie is a recent transplant from Michigan, where she worked on Democratic and progressive causes beginning in 2006 – with a break in 2008 to work in six states for the Hillary Clinton campaign, and in New Hampshire for Senator Jeanne Shaheen. As the Director of Constituent Relations for the Michigan Senate Democrats, she coordinated activism on behalf of the caucus’s platform with diverse groups, ranging from organized labor to V-Day, and served as a regional field director during the 2010 campaign cycle. In a volunteer capacity, she was vice chair of the Ingham County Women’s Commission, a publicly-appointed body tasked with improving access to and efficacy of county programs that help women and children.Valerie holds a BS in Microbiology from Michigan State University, and she is a proud Spartan. She lives in Berkeley with her partner Brad, and on weekends she enjoys running in Tilden Park or biking along the San Francisco Bay Trail.

Julian is an Oakland native raised behind the redwood curtain of Humboldt County. He is a graduate of San Francisco State University who came to Green For All through his organizing work with The League of Young Voters. Julian’s passion for our people and our planet finds a vehicle in his work as Green For All’s Director of Education & Outreach.

In his six years at Green For All, Julian has helped launch a number of Green For All’s marquee movement building campaigns and programs. In 2008, he recruited, trained and supported our first two Fellowship classes. He continues to manage this network of now almost 150 community leaders from dozens of communities around the country. Beginning in 2010 he designed and launched the College Ambassador program, working with select students on 15 historically black colleges and universities throughout the south east. Members of the Ambassador program have gone on to organize around critical issues related to the environment as they’ve entered their professional careers, many crediting this program with helping them find their focus and honing their skill as organizers. In addition to these long standing efforts and in partnership with Hip Hop Caucus, he launched and managed Green The Block, heading out on the road to engage with youth everywhere while on tour with Drake and Wiz Khalifa.

Now acting as Green For All’s director of Education and Outreach, he works local leaders to build the green economy from the ground up helping support our base by providing the tools and resources they need to communicate the promise of the green economy and to engage disadvantaged communities in support of a green economy and climate protection strategies. Julian works everyday to link local partners, lift those local best practices and models to national prominence, and leverage the success stories for large-scale change. Julian has been featured in The Nation, Wiretap magazine and The San Francisco Xpress, and has been recognized by the California Labor Archives for excellence in writing.

Kim builds and manages relationships with the Administration, Congress and with national environmental and progressive organizations and coalitions. She also helps shape the organization’s national policy agenda.

Prior to this role, Kim served as a program associate providing support to the communications and policy departments in our DC office. Before joining Green For All, she worked in the non-profit sector for 20 years assisting children and families as a parent educator and later as a program manager and training director for child care resource centers in the Maryland. She is passionate about making sure children are in a safe environment and families have access to available local, state and federal resources. For 10 years Kim operated a minority owned business that contracted with local non-profits to assist kinship caregivers, parents and early childhood educators by providing training, support, and resources to promote professionalism and care-giving skills. She holds a B.A. in Mass Communications from Fort Valley State University.

Alyssa Ritterstein is Green For All’s Press Secretary based out of the Washington, DC office. Alyssa manages media relations and social media strategy, identifies opportunities to promote work nationally and locally, and coordinates with allies on joint communications efforts.Prior to joining Green For All, Alyssa provided strategic communication support to Tigercomm, a cleantech public relations firm, and their clean energy accounts through project leadership, media management and business development. While there, she also coordinated monthly guest lecture presentations for the company’s Scaling Green blog.

Alyssa worked in the Communications Department for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), where she assisted in the development and implementation of its online advocacy campaigns. She has also coordinated events that benefited low-income DC-area residents, as Special Events Coordinator at Jubilee Support Alliance and at A Wider Circle.

Alyssa earned her M.A. in Public Communications and B.A. in Psychology from American University. She is a member of Progressive Communicators of Washington, DC (PCDC) and Washington Women in Public Relations (WWPR), having served on the 2012 Washington PR Woman of the Year committee.

Well known for his acting work as a star of Tyler Perry’s Meet the Brown’s (The Series) as well as numerous films and plays, Mr. Rucker is an activist and spokesperson for several non-profit organizations and community action initiatives including A.H.E.A.D., Inc., Inner City Industry, BET’s Rap-It-Up campaign, the Black AIDS Institute, The Magic Johnson Foundation and several grass-roots organizations across the country leading the way in uplifting families and mobilizing communities to encourage prevention, education and testing initiatives for HIV/AIDS and other issues.

Mr. Jones has over 25 years of experience in the technology industry as a securities lawyer, investment banker and senior business executive.

Prior to Aeris, Mr. Jones was the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Visionael, raising over $40M in capital to fund their rapid growth. Prior to Visionael, Mr. Jones was the President of Madge Networks, a company that grew during his tenure from $40M to $500M in revenue with a successful IPO.

Mr. Jones has a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Stanford University and a J.D. degree from Stanford Law School.

Mr. Jones is on several boards including serving as the Chairman and CEO of Aeris Communications, the Governing Board for Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) and Board Member of Working Partnerships (WPUSA).

Donald Cohen is the chair of In the Public Interest, a national resource center on privatization and responsible contracting. He is also the director of the Cry Wolf Project, a nonprofit research network that identifies and exposes misleading rhetoric about the economy, regulation and government.

He is the former co-founder and president of the Center on Policy Initiatives, a San Diego-based research and policy center. He is also the former Political Director of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO. He is a founding board member of the Partnership for Working Families, a national federation of metropolitan-based research, policy and action centers. He is on the board of Green For All, the Ballot Initiatives Strategy Center and the Labor Project for Working Families.

As executive administrative assistant to UAW President Bob King, Wendy Fields-Jacobs serves as chief of staff. The first woman to hold this top, non-elected position, her role includes formulating policies on organizing, collective bargaining and politics. She was previously King’s top administrative assistant when he led the National Ford and Competitive Shops/Independents, Parts and Suppliers departments as a UAW vice president. Under King’s leadership of National Organizing, she helped develop the UAW’s strategic program, coordinated regional activities and oversaw training. She joined UAW Local 376 after organizing with co-workers at Northeast Citizen Action Resource Center. Her experience began in 1987 at New England Healthcare Workers Union District 1199. In 1997, she was appointed adviser to the UAW Connecticut Women’s Committee and served as a vice president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO. An activist, she co-chaired the African-American/ Latino Coalition of New London and was on the board of the Women’s Center, CLUW.

Van Jones the President and co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, a platform for bottom-up, people-powered innovations to help fix the U.S. economy. Van founded Green For All, and was the leading advocate for the Green Jobs Act, which was signed into law by George W. Bush in 2007, and has resulted in $500 million for green job training nationally.

Van is the founder of Green For All, a national organization working to get green jobs to disadvantaged communities. He was the main advocate for the Green Jobs Act; signed into law by George W. Bush in 2007, the Act was the first piece of federal legislation to codify the term “green jobs.” Under the Obama administration, it has resulted in $500 million for green job training nationally. He currently serves as a board member of Green for All.

In 2009, Van worked as the green jobs advisor to the Obama White House. There, he helped run the inter-agency process that oversaw $80 billion in green energy recovery spending.

A Yale-educated attorney, Van has written two New York Times Best Sellers: The Green Collar Economy, the definitive book on green jobs, and Rebuild the Dream, a roadmap for progressives in 2012 and beyond.
While best known as a pioneer in the environmental movement, Van has been hard at work in social justice for nearly two decades, fashioning solutions to some of urban America’s toughest problems. He is the co-founder of two social justice organizations: the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Color of Change. He currently serves as a board member of the Ella Baker Center.

His awards and recognition include being named as one of Fast Company’s “12 Most Creative Minds on Earth,” Rolling Stone’s “12 Leaders Who Get Things Done in 2012,” TIME magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World.”

Before becoming a board member, Phaedra served as Chief Executive Officer of Green For All. Under her leadership, Green For All became one of the country’s leading advocates for a clean-energy economy, and one of its most important voices on the intersection of economics and environment.
Phaedra led Green For All to several groundbreaking policy victories and innovative pilot projects at the federal, state, and local levels, while redefining the face of environmentalism through youth engagement and partnerships with popular artists.

Prior to joining Green For All, Phaedra was a leader in California’s labor movement, heading both the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council and Working Partnerships USA. This has given her a unique perspective that has enabled her to bring labor, environmental, business, grassroots, and government leaders together in common purpose. Her ability to speak to all of these groups has made Phaedra one of America’s preeminent leaders on green jobs and green pathways out of poverty.

The scope and scale of Phaedra’s many achievements have won her wide praise and recognition. She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Huffington Post, and on ABC, BET, CNN, MSNBC, and NBC.

Phaedra serves as the Chair of the Department of Labor’s Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship, and sits on numerous boards. In 2010, Phaedra was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.