Jerome Ringo
Jerome Ringo became National President of the Apollo Alliance in 2005, working diligently as a dedicated champion of environmental justice and a vocal advocate of clean energy. His firsthand knowledge of the challenges faced came from working for more than 20 years in Louisiana’s petrochemical industry. Over ten years was spent as an active union member working with fellow members to secure a safe work environment and quality jobs for employees. As Jerome began observing the negative impacts of the industry’s pollution on local communities; primarily poor, minority communities, he began organizing community environmental justice groups. His experience in organizing environmental and labor communities, and his drive to further diversify the environmental movement encouraged many of Apollo’s partners to create a broad based coalition to provide real solutions for our energy crisis. In 1996, Ringo was elected to serve on the National Wildlife Federation board of directors. In 2005, Jerome became the chair of the board, making him the first African American to head a major conservation organization. Jerome’s noted accomplishments include: delegate to the United States’ 1998 Global Warming Treaty Negotiations in Kyoto, Japan, representative for the National Wildlife Federation at the COP 15 talks in Copenhagan, Denmark, representative at the United Nations’ Conference on Sustainable Development in 1999, McCloskey Fellow and Associate Research Scholar at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, appearance in the Academy Award Winning Documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and co-author of “Diversity and the Future of the U.S. Environmental Movement” and “The Green Festival Reader.”
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