The Sierra Club, in a move reflecting tension at the influential grassroots environmental organization, has sidelined its executive director, Benjamin Jealous, as controversy has ensued over his tenure there.
However, several defenders say that he is the victim of unfair treatment, untenable expectations, and racial discrimination as he has tried to steer the group out of a scandal involving its previous leader.
“We have worked with Ben closely throughout his tenure as executive director, and speak from experience. Ben is under attack by many who, through a pattern of misinformation, character assassination, and discrimination, seek to oust him from his position and drive him out of the Sierra Club,” said Aaron Mair, former president of the Sierra Club’s board of directors, and Chad Hanson, former longtime national Sierra Club board member and a research ecologist with the John Muir Project, in a letter to the organization. “We urge Sierra Club leaders to raise their voices and speak out against this smear campaign.”
Jealous, 52, served as the former president and chief executive officer of the NAACP for five years before stepping down in 2013. He made a run for governor of Maryland in 2018, and was named the executive director of the Sierra Club in December 2022 after an investigation a year before that revealed a toxic work culture and an alleged rape incident. He is the first Black person to hold the position.
Last week, the organization told reporters of the change in his status with them.
“While we do not comment on any employee’s leave, we strongly reject any suggestion, implication, or claim that Ben’s leave is the result of any discriminatory action by the Sierra Club or the result of urging by outside parties,” said Sierra Club Chief Communications Officer Jonathon Berman in response to a query from the AmNews. “Anyone claiming otherwise does not have the benefit of the facts.”
Mair, a retired New York State public health epidemiological-spatial analyst, said there is an underlying cause behind the rupture between Jealous and the Sierra Club.
“A board member — basically. Ben called him out and said you’re undermining our position, this is problematic, and so he immediately tried to come back, saying Ben was threatening him,” said Mair. “Now, all of a sudden, everyone is scared of the angry Black man, which is bullcrap. It’s one of those things where you know you screwed up.”
Jealous’ leave comes after several rounds of layoffs were announced, raising tension among local chapters, “bad faith” contract negotiations, and complaints from the Progressive Workers Union (PWU), which is an external entity separate from the club. Jealous was also slammed in a staff letter for not articulating a concrete strategy to fight back against President Donald Trump’s anti-environmental agenda.
The PWU claims that Jealous has eliminated the environmental justice campaigns and equity team, as well as “laid off a disproportionate number of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC)” staff. Union members overwhelmingly passed a no-confidence vote on Jealous last year.
A letter from Robert Bullard – considered the father of environmental justice – to the group’s board of directors also expressed concerns about Jealous’ ability to do his job.
Bullard said that Jealous and the Sierra Club had made specific commitments to Black homeowners in the flood-damaged Shiloh community in Coffee County, Ala., that never came to fruition.
“Residents have come to feel a deep sense of betrayal and left hanging when the promise of securing an attorney and commitment to support legal action against the Alabama Department of Transportation never materialized,” Bullard wrote on his website. “And then weeks of silence ensued and no updates.”
The Sierra Club’s Board of Directors voted in June 2025 to approve a $144 million budget for fiscal year 2025–2026, despite strong opposition from volunteer leaders and the PWU. The budget resolution said there was no net operating deficit. Mair, who was a member of the club’s finance committee, said the layoffs were the consequence of a $40 million budget deficit that preceded Jealous’s tenure. Jealous had to balance the budget by cutting “unnecessary and non-staff costs” and reducing staff, said Mair, and was vilified by the PWU for doing so.
Mair said the Sierra Club has been experiencing a “culture war” along with a budget crisis since 2020’s racial reckoning and the death of George Floyd. The club’s staunch “nature conservationists” are clashing with the growing number of younger and more diverse club staff who are focused on moving the needle on environmental and social justice initiatives, he said.
“Most of our actions against inequity have to do with a legal issue, policy, or rule or regulatory framework. The way to challenge is through your elected leaders, civil society and democracy,” said Mair. “If that is bogged down through malapportionment and sheer White racism, then Black people end up with toxic and dirty environments. They become the dumping ground. They become the zones to sacrifice.“
Mair said that he does not want to see Jealous removed from the Sierra Club because of what that could look like for the future, particularly for a group that pursues environmental justice.
“If he is fired, that would be a very dangerous to cross as a person of color because it’s totally a double standard. No White executive ever has been fired because labor had organized a disinformation campaign. There’s nothing there.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated.
This story was republished with permission from the Amsterdam News.