NEWS: PRESS RELEASE ARCHIVE

COEJL Hires Adam Stern as Executive Director
Expands National Operations to California

Kirsten S. Kleinman
Manager of Operations

New York, NY (April 8, 2003) - The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) has hired Adam C. Stern as its new executive director.

COEJL's founding executive director, Mark X. Jacobs, is stepping down after 9 years during which the organization has grown from a short-term project into a national outreach and advocacy organization highly regarded in the Jewish community, among environmental leaders, and on Capitol Hill.

Stern, who started his new position on April 1, has more than 20 years of experience in environmental outreach and advocacy. Most recently vice president for business development at Care2.com, a highly successful environmental web site, he has held senior positions at Environmental Defense, where he served for six years as deputy director in New York, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, and several environmental and philanthropic ventures in the San Francisco Bay Area. Stern lives in Berkeley, California with his wife, a cantorial soloist, and 7 year old daughter.

Stern will be taking his first professional post in a Jewish organization. His Jewish voluntary leadership includes having served on the board of the San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council and involvement in COEJL's Bay Area affiliate.

Stern will be working from an office in San Francisco expanding COEJL's national operation, which will remain headquartered in New York with an advocacy office in Washington, D.C. The new office will complement intensive grassroots activity in the region. Six of COEJL's 13 regional affiliates are on the West Coast of the United States and Canada.

"It's a very exciting time for COEJL," said Sharon Bloome of Seattle, COEJL's board chair. "We are thrilled that Adam will lead COEJL into its next phase of expansion. Though we are losing a talented and visionary leader as Mark Jacobs departs, we are gaining professional leadership that promises a very bright future for COEJL as we advance the urgent Jewish mission to protect our planet for future generations."