Listen to On Leading
Left to right: Vien Truong, Michelle Romero, Kim Noble
““What we have to begin to do is to love ourselves and to love others...” ”
Credited by many for building the green jobs movement in America, Green For All is driven by a mission to build an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. An organization within Dream Corps, which was founded by Van Jones to support campaigns and initiatives that empower the most vulnerable in our society, Green for All is led by a powerful trio of women. Vien Truong - one of the country’s foremost policy innovators and strategists at the intersection of equity, economic development, and climate justice - is the Director of Green For All and the deputy CEO of Dream Corps. She is joined by talented organizer and advocate Michelle Romero as the Deputy Director of Green For All, and seasoned coalition-builder Kim Noble as the Director of National Partnerships.
Director and Deputy CEO Vien Truong is both empowering and powerful in her role, bringing experience that includes the landmark accomplishment of securing passage of Senate Bill 535, a community reinvestment bill in California that created the largest “polluter pay fund” in history at over $900 million to date. A former Fellow at UC Berkeley’s East Bay Community Law Center, Vien is the youngest of eleven children born to a refugee family that fled from war-torn Vietnam. Raised in both the pesticide-ridden strawberry fields of Oregon and amidst the toxic sweatshops of Oakland, California, Vien champions environmental justice. She was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle as one of city’s Top Women Leaders, and received Urban Habitat’s Movement Builder award, Oxfam America’s Act Local, Think Global award, and the Transform 2015 Leadership, Innovation, Vision and Equity (LIVE) Award.
As Deputy Director of Green For All, Michelle Romero is advancing a national strategy to replicate carbon pricing policy that invests billions into rebuilding the health, wealth, and environment of frontline families. She also produced the first-of-its-kind policy toolkit to provide a robust set of policy ideas for states to advance climate solutions that address both poverty and pollution. For similarly savvy efforts, Michelle has received legislative and congressional recognition for her work to engage an unprecedented number of low-income people and people of color in California's citizen redistricting process.
In her role as the Director of National Partnerships, Kim Noble helps shape Green For All's national policy agenda. She leverages her resolute voice to build and manage relationships with the White House Administration, Congress, and national environmental and progressive organizations and coalitions. Her work is rooted in her passion for making sure children can thrive in a safe environment and families have access to all available local, state and federal resources.
Together, Vien, Michelle, and Kim reveal what is possible when we unleash and uplift the genius that is unheard and usually overlooked within society’s systemically silenced populations. They demonstrate restorative leadership by empowering and advocating for the transformative impact that each of us can have within our own communities. In this interview, Vien, Michelle, and Kim discuss key restorative leadership practices that are participatory and bridging. They channel the intelligence that exists within communities of color and low-income neighborhoods as they work to ensure that those most impacted by fossil-fuel pollution and the cascading impacts of climate change have their needs and voices heard.
Reflecting a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of life, Green For All catalyzes innovative solutions to the issues that emerge where social and environmental challenges meet: as they say, "We can and should fight pollution and poverty at the same time.” Let’s listen in as The Green For All leadership team reveals how returning to our shared humanity as an act of love bridge divides among unusual allies and yields breakthrough progress for All.
Lead From Co-Power For The Greater Good
Green For All works to build an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Our goal is to make sure people of color have a place and a voice in the climate movement. That our neighborhoods are strong, resilient, and healthy. That as the clean energy economy grows, it brings jobs and opportunity to our communities. Neighborhood activists. National organizations. Hip Hop Artists. Clergy. Elected officials. Business leaders and civil rights advocates. Green For All works with the best and brightest in America to fight for a healthy environment and strong communities.
In Rebuild the Dream, green economy pioneer Van Jones reflects on his journey from grassroots outsider to White House insider. For the first time, he shares intimate details of his time in government – and reveals why he chose to resign his post as a special advisor to the Obama White House.
Jones puts his hard-won lessons to good use, proposing a powerful game plan to restore hope, fix our democracy and renew the American Dream...
