We partnered with WildEarth Guardians (“Guardians”) on the search for their next
Executive Director. Guardians believes in the inherent value of all species and
ecological processes for climate resilience. They actively engage in conservation,
advocacy, and legal initiatives to influence environmental policies at both state and
federal levels in the Western U.S. Working collaboratively, they raise public awareness and drive actions to protect and restore the environment. Guardians is proof that a group of committed, visionary, idealistic and passionate caretakers of the wild can take on the most daunting adversaries – and win.
Our work resulted in the recruitment of Hop Hopkins to the role.
Hop Hopkins has been organizing for over twenty-five years at the intersections of race, class, gender, and the environment. Before serving as Executive Director at WildEarth Guardians, Hop led organizational transformation at the Sierra Club, worked with LA River Keepers, and helped start an outdoor education school for children. He is a social movement strategist and scholar and has been a leader in movements from HIV/AIDS to global justice, food sovereignty, anti-displacement, and clean energy transition. He began his career as a grassroots environmental justice community organizer in Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles.
Hop received his bachelor’s degree from New College of California as a graduate in the Culture, Ecology, and Sustainable Communities program with a focus on natural building. He earned his Master’s Degree in Urban Sustainability at Antioch University, Los Angeles, where he also served as a Climate Justice Fellow and adjunct professor. He has earned a certificate of completion from the Leadership, Organizing and Action Program at Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Executive Education, and a certificate in the Art of Leadership at the Rockwood Leadership Institute.
He sits on the Los Angeles Food Policy Council’s Leadership Circle, is a Board Trustee at the Midland School, and has served on the boards of the Community Coalition for Environmental Justice, Western States Center, and People’s College of Law. Hop is a certified arborist, has earned a Permaculture Design Certificate, is a master gardener, and was certified as a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) trainer.