News Release
November 16, 2022 (Augusta, ME) — Maine’s leading environmental advocacy organization, the Natural Resources Council of Maine, today announced that Rebeccah Sanders has been selected to serve as its next CEO.
Sanders brings more than two decades of executive nonprofit management experience, most recently as Chief Field and Strategy Officer for the National Audubon Society where she maximized the impact of 22 field offices. She joined Audubon in 2013 as Executive Director of the Chicago region where she extended reach across five states and increased annual revenue ten-fold.
“Rebeccah is a leader who understands the importance of developing deep relationships across the breadth of Maine’s communities. She is ideally positioned to help continue NRCM’s growth at this exciting time for collective work to protect the nature of Maine, especially as we accelerate the transition to a clean energy future,” said Ed Simmons, Chair of the NRCM Board of Directors.
Prior to her work at National Audubon, Rebeccah was the inaugural executive director of the Chicago Cultural Alliance, a coalition of heritage-based community organizations working together to leverage community voices for cultural change and to address a broad set of civic issues such as climate change, immigration, and community planning.
“NRCM’s inspiring legacy of bringing people together to protect Maine’s natural beauty is a model for the rest of the nation and one of the reasons I’m so excited to lead this organization into the future,” said Sanders.
“A healthy environment and strong sense of community are what make Maine so special. We can meet the urgency of this moment by bringing many voices to the table to ensure our work is an expression of what Mainers want and value in day-to-day life,” she continued.
A past Maine resident and frequent visitor, Rebeccah began her career as the Post-Secondary Coordinator for the Maine State GEAR-UP program. Through this role she developed a deep understanding of Maine’s communities and natural wonders, as she traveled across the state from Portland to Fort Kent to increase education access for Maine’s children.
Sanders was unanimously selected by NRCM’s board of directors on Monday evening. She will be moving back to Maine from Chicago with her family and will start at NRCM in late January, replacing interim CEO Pete Didisheim.
“Rebeccah’s extensive experience with coalition-building and mobilizing grassroots action comes to NRCM at just the right moment as we strengthen our focus on cultivating young environmental leaders and broadening our outreach and connections with Tribal governments and rural and underserved communities,” continued Simmons.
A Fulbright recipient, Rebeccah received her BA in anthropology and environmental science from the University of Notre Dame and her MA in environmental and ecological anthropology from the University of Georgia.
