Milestones: Leaders rise up from the ranks

The leadership ladder

Over 50 years, PIRG and the larger PIRG network have provided tens of thousands of young people with their first activist experience – as student volunteers and interns, canvassers and entry-level staff.

Dozens of these new activists have risen up the ranks to become leaders within The Public Interest Network. Here are just three such stories:

PIRG President Faye Park 

In 1990, as Williams College student Faye Park searched for her path in life, she discovered … a MASSPIRG bank survey.

The survey compared the interest rates and fees of the two local banks then available to Williams students. It struck Faye as a practical project that made a concrete, positive impact on people’s lives – exactly what she wanted to do with her life.

Over the next two years, Faye became more involved in MASSPIRG, learning more about the concept and craft of organizing and meeting mentors such as MASSPIRG Executive Director Janet Domenitz.

“Janet and I once shared a car ride from Boston to Williamstown,” Faye said. “MASSPIRG had just suffered a setback on a recycling initiative, so I asked her how she stayed motivated. She said, ‘I focus on what I can control and influence and on doing it better today than I did yesterday.’ That conversation, and many others like it, stuck with me and helped show me how to make a difference.”

Faye has continued to apply that lesson as a campus organizer and organizing director with CALPIRG Student Chapters; as a canvass director; as executive vice president of The Public Interest Network; and as president of PIRG.

Student PIRG National Political Director Dan Xie

Dan Xie also got her start with PIRG as a college student, staying involved in CALPIRG for her sophomore through senior years.

After graduating from the University of California at Davis in 2008, her rise up the ranks has included stints as campus organizer in California, organizing director in New Jersey, and canvass director and regional canvass director in multiple states.

Each of her previous experiences has prepared Dan for her current role: political director for the Student PIRGs. She coordinates strategy for dozens of campaigns, with a focus on youth voter turnout, climate change and single-use plastics.

Her choice of career path, she says, is based on two factors. “We take getting results very seriously and I want to be on the winning team. I also want young people to feel like they have agency over our democracy. We’re one of the few groups out there that give people the skills and resources they need to experience victory on a social issue in college.”

Environment America President Wendy Wendlandt 

After graduating from Whitman College in 1983, Wendy Wendlandt’s desire to get involved in politics took her to an obvious landing place: Washington, D.C.

However, her first job, in political consulting, left her wanting more – to work on the issues and causes she cared most about. Wendy returned to her native Oregon and set out to look for work in social change. She found and was hired for a position as campus organizer with WashPIRG – and drove to Montana the day after she accepted the job to start training.

Since then, Wendy has served as an organizer at Evergreen State College and ran the Seattle summer canvass office (despite only having two days of canvassing experience). She became executive director of WashPIRG in 1986, helped create the grants and political departments for The Public Interest Network, ran multiple electoral projects, served on the boards of Green Corps and Green Century Capital Management, and is now president of Environment America.

Few people work as hard or as long as Wendy, on such a wide variety of projects, yet her energy level is unflagging. Which is perhaps no surprise – when she hasn’t been organizing, she has scaled mountains throughout the Pacific Northwest, as well as Mount Kiliminjaro, Machu Picchu and to Base Camp at Mount Everest.

The Public Interest Network leadership includes dozens of other “up from the ranks” leaders. They include Andre Delattre (senior vice president, started as a PIRG student), Susan Rakov (senior vice president, started as a campus organizer), Andy MacDonald (Student PIRG national organizing director, started as a canvasser), and Emily Rusch (vice president, started as a fellow).