Tuesday and Tim welcome Katie Redford and Annie Plotkin-Madrigal of the Equation Campaign. In this pod, Annie and Katie explain the need for a different approach to climate philanthropy, how they confront and challenge the power of the fossil fuel industry by investing in frontline communities and movements, and the way they approach their work with a combination of head, heart, and hands. Driven by the belief that true change requires confronting corporate power, disruption, and a focus on justice, the Equation Campaign has set a 10 year deadline for their audacious work. Welcome to this brilliant conversation.
About Equation Campaign
Equation Campaign funds movements on the ground to keep fossil fuels in the ground. We support place-based efforts to block new oil and gas infrastructure in the US, where industry impacts are high and where climate philanthropy has been historically low.
We raise funds and fast track resources to campaigns led by frontline organizations, investing in the power of communities to protect their rights and homelands, while strengthening their leadership in the growing movement for racial and climate justice.
About Katie Redford, Executive Director
Katie Redford is the Executive Director of The Equation Campaign. Katie is a lawyer with expertise in human rights, climate justice and corporate accountability, who is credited with spearheading legal strategies to hold corporations accountable for human rights and environmental abuses around the world.
Prior to her current role, Katie was a founding director of EarthRights International, where she spent 25 years building the NGO that trains and litigates on behalf of communities harmed by corporate human rights and environmental abuses, and defends environmental defenders from retaliatory corporate abuse.
Katie received an Echoing Green Fellowship in 1995 to establish EarthRights and has since been recognized as an Ashoka Global Fellow, a Rockwood Leadership Fellow and a Bellagio Resident Fellow. She has received numerous awards and has been profiled in a variety of media including the books Be Bold and Your America: Democracy’s Local Heroes, and the award-winning documentary film Total Denial.
Katie has published in legal, human rights and environmental journals, and is the co-author of The Revolution Will Not Be Litigated. She has served on a variety of nonprofit boards, as well as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Virginia School of Law and the Washington College of Law. Katie is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court and the Massachusetts state bar, and a graduate of Colgate University and the University of Virginia School of Law.
About Annie Plotkin-Madrigal, Deputy Director
Annie is the Deputy Director of Equation Campaign, focusing on supporting grantees, partners, allies and our team to realize our vision of a fossil free and climate just future. She coordinates the Equation Fellows program and oversees our grantmaking portfolios, and supports the team in executing our strategy.
Annie brings experience in highlighting and uplifting bold, innovative ideas; previous to joining the team, she was the Fellowship Director for Ashoka US, where she led efforts to build and support the nation’s leading social entrepreneurs and innovators. She grew up in a household dedicated to indigenous land rights and environmental justice, establishing a lifelong focus on supporting those at the frontlines of our biggest environmental fights who have the most to teach the world.
She grew up between Arlington, VA and Escazú, Costa Rica, and outside of work she spends her time rock climbing, reading about astrology, and listening to Bad Bunny.
Resources:
Learn more about, and follow, The Outside by visiting and liking all of our channels:
Website: www.findtheoutside.com
Facebook & Instagram: @findtheoutside
Book: “The Revolution Will Not Be Litigated,” by Katie Redford & Mark Gevisser
Michelle Mascarenhas, Movement Generation
Advice that the Equation Campaign is carrying around in its back pocket: "You can’t solve problems by doing the same thing that caused the problem in the first place.” - Einstein
Back pocket wisdom from Katie: “My people have survived being kidnapped from our homelands, brought to this country, enslaved… and were still here. The front lines are never going to lose because the front lines will never give up.” - Justin J. Pearson
Back pocket wisdom from Annie: “If we’re not prepared to govern, we’re not prepared to win.” - Michelle Mascarenhas, Movement Generation
Rules for radical lawyers:
“You are not objective and stop pretending that you are.” - Katie Redford
“If you are going to be a radical movement lawyer, you need to care.” - Katie Redford