After Turmoil and No-Confidence Votes, Sierra Club Terminates Ben Jealous

Ben Jealous’ tenure at the Sierra Club has come to an end. 

Leadership at the environmental organization announced Jealous’ firing to staff in an email Monday evening. 

“Following an extensive evaluation of his conduct, the Board of Directors unanimously voted to terminate Ben Jealous’ employment for cause. This was not a decision we took lightly,” the email said. 

Jonathon Berman, chief communications officer for the organization, confirmed Jealous’ exit to Inside Climate News. 

“The Sierra Club values all of its employees, members, and volunteers, not just those holding influence and power,” Berman wrote in an email. “The Sierra Club will continue to look into concerns raised regarding misconduct irrespective of who they are raised against in furtherance of our policies, the law, and our mission.”

Jealous had become the subject of widespread criticism among the Sierra Club’s rank-and-file after several years of budget cuts, layoffs and unfair labor-practice complaints at the organization. Both union and non-union members passed votes of no confidence in the former NAACP president. Robert Bullard, a prominent environmental advocate, had also called for a no-confidence vote. 

Jealous did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. 

In its email to staffers, Sierra Club board members said they had made a “principled” decision to uphold the club’s values “and ensure every individual at the Sierra Club is held equally accountable, with no special treatment or favor for those holding influence and power.”

The email said leadership would provide “all the information we can appropriately share” with staff and volunteers in a Tuesday meeting. 

In a statement, Erica Dodt, president of the Progressive Workers Union, praised the board’s decision.

“We are heartened to see the Sierra Club take action to terminate Ben Jealous for cause,” Dodt wrote. “Over a year ago, our union members overwhelmingly voted no confidence in Jealous’ leadership, citing his mismanagement of our organization’s strategy and budget and his ongoing attacks on our union. We hope that his departure will open the door for a stronger relationship between workers and management, and allow the Sierra Club to better focus our efforts on fighting the Trump administration and protecting the environment.”

Jealous had been placed on leave in July by the organization’s board, which had refused to answer press questions about the change. Loren Blackford, a longtime member of Sierra Club leadership, served as acting executive director in Jealous’ absence. 

In a letter to Sierra Club last month, two former board members defended him and said that Jealous, who is Black, has faced a racist “pattern of misinformation, character assassination, and discrimination,” according to the Amsterdam News in New York. 

But Mercedes Macias, an elected member of the Progressive Workers Union’s Sierra Club unit steering committee and member of the PWU Sierra Club BIPOC Caucus, said Jealous “lost the confidence of a majority of his staff as well as prominent volunteer leaders within the organization.”

An Inside Climate News review of Jealous’ employment contract provided only limited reasons he could be terminated for cause, including “an act of gross negligence, dishonesty, fraud, misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, or any act of malfeasance of moral turpitude by Executive that is substantially harmful to the mission, interests, or reputation of Sierra Club; Executive’s willful failure or refusal to perform his duties or his material breach of this Agreement; Executive’s conviction of (or plea of no contest with respect to) a felony or other crime that substantially harms the mission, interests, or reputation of Sierra Club; or a severe violation of Sierra Club’s [equal opportunity] policy.”

Blackford will continue to “work in partnership with [the Sierra Club’s] leadership team,” the board’s communication with staff said.

Patrick Murphy, Sierra Club’s board president, called the leadership change a “moment of renewal” for the organization.

“We look forward to continuing to work closely with Acting Executive Director Loren Blackford and the leadership team to meet the critical moment America faces,” he said in a statement.