Green For All | Rosetta Thurman

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins is the Chief Executive Officer of Green For All in Oakland, California.

From the Green for All website:

Since taking leadership in March 2009, Phaedra has led the organization to a stirring string of victories. Chief among these was assembling a civil rights coalition that successfully lobbied for two significant improvements to the House version of the American Clean Energy and Security Act: securing funding for job training, and guaranteeing broad access to clean energy jobs. These are the Act’s only provisions creating opportunity for low-income people and people of color.

Under Phaedra’s leadership, Green For All has also won major legislative victories in Washington State and New Mexico. With Green For All’s help, both are pioneering state-level green jobs and energy-efficiency programs. Washington’s, in particular offers other states a model for not only creating clean energy jobs, but also responsibly investing federal Recovery Act dollars for long-term environmental and economic health.

Prior to joining Green For All, Phaedra was head of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council and Working Partnerships USA. While there, she earned her reputation as one of the nation’s most inspirational and creative problem solvers for working families. She also earned a wealth of experience that will help her lead Green For All to new heights:

Expanded job opportunities in the realm of green improvements. Working Partnerships USA’s efforts to integrate environmental projects included additional training for roofers on solar panel installation, retrofit programs and state policy advocacy.
Expanded the Living Wage. Phaedra’s experience crafting and making the case for policy centered on economic justice will be key in making sure the new green economy benefits everyone.
Launched the Partnership for Working Families.Phaedra co-founded the Partnership for Working Families, a national coalition to bring good jobs and community benefits to local economic development. This is the sort of national, inclusive scale-building that allows non-profit organizations to maximize their resources while driving a specific agenda more broadly.
Community Benefits Agreements and Team San Jose. Phaedra led the fight to create one of the first Community Benefits Agreements in the country. That agreement provided community standards for a large-scale economic development project in San Jose. Now she is bringing her innovative thinking about how public investment can assure benefit to workers and the community to the green jobs movement.

The scope and scale of Phaedra’s many achievements have won her wide praise. San Jose Magazine named her one of the 100 most powerful people in Silicon Valley. The Silicon Valley Business Journal called her one of “40 to watch under 40.”

As a woman of color, Phaedra has distinguished herself as an innovative leader in California and led the way for emerging leaders in the American progressive movement, directing campaigns to win policy victories on local, regional, and state levels. She has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, and Essence, and on ABC, CNN, MSNBC, and NBC.

An alumna of American Leadership Forum, she has served on the boards of the Progressive Technology Project, New World Foundation, the Women’s Fund of Silicon Valley, the City of San Jose General Plan Update Task Force and the Central Labor Council Advisory Committee. She serves on the board of the Leadership Council of California Forward and is Chair and Co-Founder of the Partnership for Working Families.