Ben Jealous terminated ‘for cause’ from top post at Sierra Club

by Christine Condon, Maryland Matters
August 12, 2025

The Sierra Club’s board voted unanimously to remove Executive Director Ben Jealous for cause, a month after he was placed on leave, according to an email sent Monday to the environmental nonprofit’s staff.

The vote came after an “extensive evaluation” of Jealous’ conduct, according to the email from board President Patrick Murphy. The email did not describe the particular reasons for Jealous’ ouster.

Jealous, a former Democratic nominee for Maryland governor, was placed on leave last month over what a Sierra Club spokesperson would only describe as a “personnel matter.”

“The Sierra Club leads with our values,” Murphy wrote in Monday’s email. “That’s how we engage in communities across the country, how we fulfill our mission and achieve our goals, and how we interact with one another and our organization.

“The decision the Board made was a difficult but principled one to uphold these values and ensure every individual at the Sierra Club is held equally accountable, with no special treatment or favor for those holding influence and power,” his email went on to say.

In a statement issued through a spokesperson Tuesday, Jealous said that he had initiated a “process under my contract” to fight the termination.

“It is disheartening, unfortunate, but perhaps not surprising that the board has chosen an adversarial course that the facts so clearly cannot support,” Jealous wrote in the statement.

Sierra Club spokesperson Jonathon Berman said the board determined Jealous “engaged in conduct that constitutes cause under his employment agreement….  the entire Board determined that it had no other option than to separate from him in order to protect the organization, its employees, its values, and its mission.”

“Mr. Jealous had an opportunity for a dignified exit and we are disheartened to see he has instead unfortunately chosen an adversarial course,” Berman’s statement said. “Mr. Jealous’ challenge to the Board’s unanimous cause determination has no merit.  We are confident that Mr. Jealous will not prevail in any forum, whether public or private.”

Jealous’ tenure at the national nonprofit was tumultuous, including several rounds of layoffs and other moves that drew ire from the Progressive Workers Union, which represents Sierra Club workers.

Progressive Workers President Erica Dodt said in a statement Monday that the union was “heartened” to learn of Jealous’ termination for cause. Dodt cited the union’s “no-confidence” vote against Jealous one year ago, which she says was spurred by his “mismanagement of our organization’s strategy and budget and his ongoing attacks on our union.”

“We hope that his departure will open the door for a stronger relationship between workers and management, and allow the Sierra Club to better focus our efforts on fighting the Trump administration and protecting the environment,” Dodt wrote.

In a July 21 letter sent to Sierra Club leaders after Jealous was put on leave, Aaron Mair and Chad Hanson, former board members, defended Jealous, who is the nonprofit’s first Black executive director, and argued that he was treated differently than his white predecessors.

The two argued, in part, that Jealous was unfairly blamed for actions he took to balance the Sierra Club’s budget, including layoffs and other cost-cutting measures.

“The Sierra Club’s first Black Executive Director is being treated like a fall guy, unfairly blamed for Board and past management decisions made before he began his job,” Mair and Hanson wrote.

Ben Jealous to take over national Sierra Club

In a letter to the Sierra Club board Tuesday, the union’s Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Caucus, pushed back against what they called “baseless accusations that PWU’s attempts to hold Mr. Jealous and his team accountable are rooted in racism.”

“BIPOC staff and allies alike have been voicing our concerns about Mr. Jealous’s leadership and actions, not because of his identity, but because of the impacts of his choices,” reads the letter.

The group argued that Jealous dismantled the Sierra Club’s equity department, and gutted other programs serving communities bearing environmental burdens. They also argued that layoffs overseen by Jealous disproportionately impacted staff of color, who made up less than a third of the organization but accounted for nearly half of the layoffs in 2025, according to the union’s data.

In its letter, the caucus argued that “dismissing Jealous is just the first among many steps” the board should take to repair the organization. It called for workplace morale and worker retention studies, as well as a voice in the hiring process for the nonprofit’s next executive director.

Jealous, a former leader of the NAACP, ran unsuccessfully to unseat Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in 2018. After the race, Jealous took on consulting work, including for the Juul e-cigarette company, before he took the leadership role at People For the American Way, and then the Sierra Club.

In his statement issued Tuesday, Jealous touted a list of achievements during his tenure with Sierra Club.

“While I was recruited at a time of significant, diverse challenges for the club, I was able to create the most diverse leadership team in the club’s history,” Jealous wrote. “The board and I strengthened a weak financial base, crafted a progressive union contract, dramatically increased chapter directors in red states, and increased our advocacy capacity by building a stronger field department.”

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