Rachel Kerestes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New director Rachel Kerestes takes the helm at Citizens’ Climate
June 26, 2024 – Today, Citizens’ Climate Lobby and Citizens’ Climate Education officially welcome their new head executive, Rachel Kerestes. Kerestes was hired in the spring by the CCL and CCE governing boards after a search process spanning several months and hundreds of candidates.
“We are thrilled about the expertise Rachel brings to the Citizens’ Climate team,” board chairs Zaurie Zimmerman and Sandra Kirtland Turner wrote in a letter last month. “Rachel has impressed us as an enthusiastic and compassionate leader committed to bipartisan action on climate change.”
A trained biologist and public policy analyst, Kerestes’s career spans the worlds of public affairs, advocacy, marketing and communications. She has held senior executive positions in national nonprofits and industry associations and leadership roles in consultancies specializing in public affairs, brand development and state and local government affairs. Her former clients include Fortune 50 companies, national nonprofits, foreign embassies, leading consumer brands, innovative start-ups and some of Washington’s most influential advocacy groups.
In a recent welcome video to CCL volunteers, Kerestes praised the robust climate advocacy work already underway at CCL. She emphasized the “bipartisan, positive and transformative” nature of CCL’s efforts, noting the more than 25,000 climate conversations CCL volunteers held in communities nationwide during April.
Next week, the organization will hold a volunteer meet-and-greet call so grassroots CCL supporters can get to know Kerestes, and vice versa.
“Here at Citizens’ Climate, we have a track record of meaningful impact in our communities and on Capitol Hill alike,” say board chairs Zimmerman and Turner. “We’ve already made incredible strides toward the livable world we want. We’re poised to do so much more, and the climate demands that we do. As your board chairs, we are confident and energized about the future of Citizens’ Climate with Rachel at the helm.”
CONTACT: Flannery Winchester, CCL Senior Director of Communications, 615-337-3642,
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Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization focused on national policies to address climate change. Learn more at citizensclimatelobby.org.
