The Sierra Club, one of the nation’s oldest and most prominent nonprofit environmental groups, was thrown into upheaval this week after its executive director was fired.
In an email to staff Monday, Sierra Club President Patrick Murphy said the board of directors had voted unanimously to terminate Ben Jealous after conducting “an extensive evaluation of his conduct.”
Jealous’ tenure had been tumultuous. He clashed with staff over sweeping layoffs and faced sharp criticism from ousted high-level employees, volunteers and some notable environmental advocates. They said the Oakland-based organization had stifled differing opinions and had become weakened as the Trump administration rolled back environmental protections.
The group’s board had placed Jealous on leave in July.
Murphy said in the Monday email that the board’s decision was “a difficult but principled one” to “ensure every individual at the Sierra Club is held equally accountable, with no special treatment or favor for those holding influence and power.”
The Sierra Club declined to give specific details on why Jealous, who ran the organization out of Washington, D.C., was fired.
Jonathon Berman, a spokesperson for the Sierra Club, said that Jealous had “engaged in conduct that constitutes cause under his employment agreement.” Berman clarified that the decision had “nothing whatsoever to do with layoffs” or controversial hiring moves by Jealous.
In a statement to The Times, Jealous defended his record, saying he strengthened the organization’s finances and achieved a “progressive union contract.” He said that he would contest the move to fire him, and that he “remained proud” of what he had accomplished at the Sierra Club.
“It is disheartening, unfortunate, but perhaps not surprising that the board has chosen an adversarial course that the facts so clearly cannot support,” he said in a statement. “I have begun the process under my contract to fight this decision. I am confident that we will prevail.”
Sierra Club had been in the process of negotiating the terms of Jealous’ exit, but talks had broken down, leading to the vote to fire the executive, according to a source with information on the board’s discussions who was not authorized to comment.
Jealous took over the organization in 2023, after it went through a wrenching internal reckoning over the racist views of its founder, John Muir, more than a century ago and allegations of sexual abuse by a former senior employee.
Staff members have said they were initially excited about the hiring of Jealous, who voiced support for the union at the beginning of his tenure. But the relationship began to sour when he announced deep cuts to staff and several organizational overhauls, citing a budget deficit.
The union publicly accused Jealous of hiring friends for costly management posts and spending lavishly on executive salaries.
Laid-off workers said efforts toward environmental justice for communities of color had been unraveled, with community organizations in California’s Inland Empire and other areas facing major congestion and pollution feeling betrayed and abandoned.
Last June, unionized workers who were poised to strike sent a letter to the Sierra Club’s board of directors informing them they had issued a vote of no confidence in the leadership.
The Sierra Club had previously defended hiring moves by Jealous, saying it had “moved quickly to fill those key roles with seasoned leaders.” Jealous told The Times in an interview last year that deep cuts were necessary and that he had been transparent throughout the process.
“These are the hard decisions that you have to make when you lead a more than century-old institution and you’re committed to it having a future as long as its past,” Jealous said then.
The organization also faced internal scrutiny over the hiring of a senior manager who was registered as a lobbyist for the cryptocurrency firm Crypto.com at the same time he worked at the Sierra Club, which has been politically critical of the polluting effects of the crypto industry and supports tighter regulations.
“The environmental impacts of cryptocurrency mining are well known,” said Dylan Plummer, an elected representative for the Sierra Club’s union, which is affiliated with the broader Progressive Workers Union. “To have hired an active lobbyist for Crypto.com at the highest ranks of our organization is so inappropriate it boggles my mind.”
Sierra Club did not respond to a question about the hiring of the lobbyist.
Erica Dodt, president of the broader Progressive Workers Union, said in a statement that she hopes Jealous’ 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, who was formerly the chief executive of the NAACP and a 2018 Democratic nominee for governor of Maryland, is Black and was the first person of color to serve at the helm of the organization.
Some of his supporters have suggested racism played a role in his firing, which Sierra Club staff members have disputed.
“There are serious racial implications in firing a Black man of Ben’s caliber, in this fashion, at a time when diversity is under attack,” civil rights leader Al Sharpton said in a statement to Politico.
Some of the turmoil roiling the national organization is mirrored in its California advocacy arm. The state plays an outsize role in the club, home to its headquarters and roughly 134,000 members.
Sierra Club California, which is one of the most influential environmental voices in Sacramento, has in recent years seen plummeting membership, dropping by roughly 19% between 2019 and 2024, and revolving leadership — with the group cycling through four leaders in a four-year period.
Jason Mark, who served as editor-in-chief of the organization’s “Sierra” magazine for about nine years until December, when he was removed from his leadership post, welcomed Jealous’ termination.
“It was sad and demoralizing to watch the Sierra Club under Ben’s leadership,” Mark said in an interview. “Still, I’m convinced the Sierra Club is a vital force of nature and truly an irreplaceable pillar in the American environmental movement.”
