Environment America Staff

Margie Alt is the executive director of Environment America. She oversees all aspects of the organization, including policy and strategy development for major campaigns; building the organization’s membership, visibility and field power; and recruiting and training hundreds of staff and activists.

Under Margie’s direction the Environment America federation has grown to include 29 state-based groups, nearly 100 professional staff, and more than 1 million members, donors, activists and allies in all 50 states and has become one of the leading ‘outside game’ players in the U.S. environmental movement.

In recent years, Margie spearheaded the federation’s successful efforts to require America’s coal-fired power plants to slash their toxic mercury pollution; enact new Clean Car standards that will save more oil than we import from Saudi Arabia and reduce global warming pollution by an amount equivalent to shutting down 70 coal-fired power plants; and to protect 1 million acres around the Grand Canyon from new mining claims.

In each case, Margie led a team of federal and state advocates who combined direct persuasion of the Obama administration and other government officials with extensive coalition-building, outreach to media outlets across the nation, and spirited grassroots campaigns to build public support and counter the influence of powerful polluters. On these and many other issues the success of Environment America’s state affiliates helped pave the way for national action.

Margie recently chaired the Green Group, an alliance of the nation’s largest environmental organizations, including Environment America, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, and others. Margie also co-chairs, along with Frances Beinecke of NRDC, the Clean Air Act Defense campaign, a coalition effort to repel attacks on the nation’s clean air safeguards.

Prior to the launch of Environment America, Margie spent 25 years helping to build U.S. PIRG and the state PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups). While at PIRG, she oversaw efforts that led to the passage and implementation of Renewable Energy Standards in over 20 states, restoration of protections to national forests, passage of state and federal ethics reforms, defense of the public’s right to know about toxic chemical exposures, and protections for local parks and beaches.

Early in her career, Margie successfully directed MASSPIRG's statewide campaign to establish the nation's first Toxics Use Reduction Law in 1989. Over the years she also served as national field director for U.S. PIRG, campus organizing director for MASSPIRG and citizen outreach director for Florida PIRG. A graduate of Yale College, Margie lives in Somerville Massachusetts.