Staff

Jerome Ringo came to the Apollo Alliance in 2005 as a dedicated champion of environmental justice and vocal advocate of clean energy. He has first hand experience of the challenges we face after working for more than 20 years in Louisiana’s petrochemical industry. More than half of that time was spent as an active union member working with his fellow members to secure a safe work environment and quality jobs. Louisiana’s petrochemical industry focuses on the production of gasoline, rocket fuel, and plastics – many of which contain cancer causing chemicals. As he began observing the negative impacts of the industry’s pollution on local communities – primarily poor, minority communities – Jerome began organizing community environmental justice groups. Jerome’s experience organizing environmental and labor communities and his drive to further diversify the environmental movement bridges many of Apollo’s partners to create a broad based coalition to provide real solutions for our energy crisis. In 1996, Ringo was elected to serve on the National Wildlife Federation board of directors and, in 2005, Jerome became the chair of the board. In so doing, he also became the first African-American to head a major conservation organization. Jerome was the United States’ only black delegate at the 1998 Global Warming Treaty Negotiations in Kyoto, Japan, and represented the National Wildlife Federation at the United Nations’ conference on sustainable development in 1999.

Cathy Calfo joined the Apollo Alliance in November 2007, having served for the past decade as California’s Deputy State Treasurer and as a senior advisor to the former State Treasurer, launching some of the most innovative policy initiatives in the country, including the Green Wave which invested nearly $1.5 billion in renewable energy, cutting edge environmental technologies, and environmentally responsible companies; and Smart Investments and the Double Bottom Line, that redirected state funding to revitalize urban neighborhoods, curb sprawl and promote energy-efficient and sustainable development practices. A leader in her home community of Santa Cruz California, Cathy served as a founding member of the city’s commission for the prevention of violence against women, for five years on the city planning commission and as a member of the board of directors of Above the Line, a shelter for homeless youth. She has three sons — seven year-old Elijah; Kris, who recently graduated from the University of California Santa Cruz; and Kaj, who attends Sonoma State University.

Kate Gordon is the Co-Director of the national Apollo Alliance. Kate was one of Apollo’s first staffers, joining in 2004 as the director of the Apollo Strategy Center, the policy arm of Apollo formerly housed at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS). She then served as Apollo’s national program director before her promotion to co-director in mid-2008. Kate is nationally recognized for her work on the intersection of clean energy and economic development policy, and especially for helping to shape the modern definition of “green-collar jobs” as “well-paid, career track jobs that contribute directly to preserving or enhancing environmental quality.” She serves or has served on many boards and steering committees including RE-AMP, Clean Wisconsin, the Midwest Agriculture Energy Network, the National Wind Coordinating Committee, and the National Green Industries Policy Retreat. Kate has a long history of working on economic justice and labor issues. At COWS, along with her energy work, Kate focused on corporate tax policy, progressive federalism, and rural economic development. Prior to that she served as an employment and consumer rights litigator at Trial Lawyers for Public Justice in Oakland, CA; in earlier years she worked as a tenant organizer and housing advocate in San Francisco. She is a primary or co-author on most of Apollo’s major reports, including The New Apollo Program, Green-Collar Jobs in America’s Cities, Greener Pathways, and the New Energy series. She is also the author of several published articles on contract fairness, federal preemption, mandatory arbitration litigation, and regional economic development.
Kate earned a JD and Masters in city pllanning from the University of California, Berkeley.

After working for ten years in Sacramento as a field staff, then legislative director for the statewide environmental group, CALPIRG (now Environment California), Mary left to direct a non-profit health organization in San Diego. Mary then began consulting with organizations such as the Audubon Society and Physicians for Social Responsibility on program start-ups, organizational development and strategic planning. She also served as the development director for The Rockefeller Family Fund’s Technology Project and later at Stanford’s performing arts program, Stanford Lively Arts. Mary went on to become the executive director for the Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts, an organization spearheading interdisciplinary university-wide programs. Mary graduated with honors in international relations from Brown University.

Paul Blank has spent more than ten years providing senior strategic counsel and management for online, political and public affairs campaigns. Most recently, Paul served as national deputy campaign manager, in charge of day-to-day operations, for John Edwards’ presidential campaign. Prior to that, Paul founded and managed the WakeUpWalMart.com campaign, the fastest growing online, grassroots campaign for corporate responsibility in America, with over 431,000 supporters. Paul also served as national political director for Howard Dean’s historic 2004 presidential campaign and has worked on high-profile public affairs campaigns such as Fortune 500 company Qualcomm’s worldwide campaign for 3G telecommunications rights. Paul has been a frequent speaker on the power of the Internet and politics and has appeared in Fortune Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and on the Today Show, Fox News, and 20/20, in addition to many other media outlets.

Anthony Booth joined the Apollo Alliance in April 2008. Previously, Anthony worked for four years as a Finance Assistant on Phil Angelides’ campaign for Governor of California. During his time on the campaign he gained great knowledge of fundraising, database procedures and event planning. Anthony attends San Francisco State University, where he is working on a degree in political science.

Carla Din joined the Apollo Alliance in 2004 as the Western Regional Field Director. Prior to this position, Carla served as the environmental liaison for the United Steelworkers, District 11, and led the labor program of the Rose Foundation for Communities & the Environment’s Maxxam Corporation capital strategies campaign to save Headwaters Forest. Carla serves on the AB118 Advisory Committee of the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program; and the Executive Board of the Northwest Energy Coalition. Carla is also an Advisory Board Member of MMA Renewable Ventures’ Bright Futures Program, and the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment’s New Voices Are Rising Project. In 2005, Carla was one of the recipients of the Byron Sher Environmental Leadership Award from the California League of Conservation Voters. Carla holds a Bachelor of Art’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master’s degree in public administration from the University of Washington in Seattle.

Richard joined the Apollo Alliance in March 2005 as the Business Outreach Director and is responsible for recruiting private companies to support federal and state based policy initiatives. Richard has been involved in the clean energy industry since the early 1990’s. He has worked for several solar energy firms in the Northeast and Rocky Mountain West, focusing on building residential and institutional markets. Richard has served as a strategic consultant to the UN Environment Programme, where he directed a series of conferences that brought together private firms, NGOs, U.N. agencies, and national and local governments to develop sustainable development projects. Richard also worked for the NYC government as a senior policy analyst, consulted to CH2MHill and served as an adjunct faculty member with Boston College’s Center for Corporate Community Relations for five years. He was a founding member of NH BSR and is now a Board member of CORE, a trade group of sustainable businesses in Colorado. He also served as a renewable energy consultant to candidate (and now Governor) Bill Ritter of Colorado. Richard has a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Wisconsin and Bachelors from the University of Maryland.

Elena Foshay joined the Apollo Alliance in September 2008 as Research Associate. Prior to her work here she did research for the Labor Center at the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied measures to ensure that green jobs are quality jobs, and conducted a study in Contra Costa County on green jobs and workforce development opportunities. A portion of her research included understanding smart growth strategies for California’s Central Valley, and she was involved in designing leadership and green jobs training for union leaders. Elena’s expertise is in community-based work and youth development in the United States and in Latin America. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay, where she worked on various community development and youth organizing projects. She worked with a rural development organization in Oaxaca, Mexico. Elena also coordinated youth development and leadership programs in Seattle, Oakland, and rural western New Jersey. She earned a B.A. in women’s studies and sociology from Oberlin College. After eight years of working at the grassroots in Latin America and the United States, she returned to school and earned a MSW in social welfare and a M.A. in international and area studies, both from the University of California, Berkeley.

Mac Lynch joined the Apollo Alliance in December 2007 as Program Assistant. Before joining Apollo, Mac worked as Education and Outreach Intern for Lake Champlain Basin Program in Grand Isle, VT; and as outreach intern for Forest Watch in Montpelier, VT. He graduated with honors from Hamilton College with a BA in environmental science and communications.

Heidi Pickman joined the Apollo Alliance as Communications Advance Associate in April 2008 following a nearly decade-long career as a producer and editor in public radio. Most recently, she was an independent radio producer for National Public Radio, Marketplace Productions, the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and YouthRadio. Prior to that Heidi was a producer for American Public Media, where she helped found and produce “Weekend America,” a program heard nationally on NPR member stations. She also was the Los Angeles bureau chief for Youth Radio, and produced Marketplace and the Marketplace Morning Report. Kai Ryssdal, the host of Marketplace, told us that Heidi was a superior talent, “a producer’s producer.” Heidi earned her BA and MA in economics from Tufts University in Medford, Mass., is a doctoral candidate in economics at UCLA, and has studied at the Institute for Justice and Journalism at USC. She has a keen interest in anything that has to do with Spain. She taught at the Institute for International Studies in Seville, and speaks Spanish fluently. Heidi says she has “a passion for social change,” and “would contribute an interesting background in environmental economics and journalism with a strong desire to see clean energy become the norm.” Sounds like she picked the right place to do her work.

Ron Ruggiero joined the Apollo Alliance in September 2008 after more than fifteen years of organizing, representation, and negotiation experience in the labor movement. He is a graduate of the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute. In 1997, he was awarded the SEIU Western Region Organizer of the Year. After organizing thousands of workers across the country, he began representing workers and negotiating contracts, including unique partnership efforts between labor and management within Kaiser Permanente. Most recently, as staff director at SEIU Local 49, he helped lead a local-wide revitalization effort. This culminated in the local being awarded “Most Improved Local” for member political engagement by the international. In 2007, he joined an ad hoc environmental committee within SEIU and helped launch the “Negotiating Green” handbook. He also began attending local Apollo Alliance meetings in Oregon. He liked what he saw. “It is clear to me that building the clean energy economy can both solve the climate crisis and help us solve our inequality crisis by revitalizing family wage-paying jobs in the United States.” Ron enjoys hiking and camping with his wife, Cindy, and their two young sons, Justus and Zade. He holds a B.A. in sociology from the University of California, Davis.

Keith Schneider, Communications Director, joined the Apollo Alliance in March 2008, the culmination of a 30-year career in journalism, public interest advocacy, and communications that included long stints at the New York Times and at the Michigan Land Use Institute, which he founded and directed.

Keith is a leading innovator in applying the new tools and techniques of online communication to secure public interest outcomes. As communications director at the Apollo Alliance he is helping to design and oversee a novel and effective program of Web-based research, content, communications, and dissemination to move the United States towards a clean energy economy.

Keith’s career in non-profit public interest communications began in 1995 when he founded the Michigan Land Use Institute, a statewide research and policy organization. He was executive director during the organization’s first five years, and later was editor, director of program development, and deputy director.

Keith, a nationally known writer, also reports for the New York Times, where he has contributed since 1981, and where he served from 1985 to 1995 as a national correspondent based in Washington. His work has been recognized with numerous honors, including two George Polk Awards for national reporting, among the most prestigious in American journalism.