At this event, WWF Senior Vice President of Climate Change Marcene Mitchell will discuss the past the past two decades of the sustainability movement.
Abstract: Sustainability has never been a straight line. Today’s landscape—marked by political reversals, cultural pushback, and rapid system‑wide disruption—can feel especially unstable. But instability is not the end of the story; it is the beginning of reorganization, creativity, and leadership. In this keynote, Marcene Mitchell reflects on two decades of navigating uncertainty in the sustainability movement and the lessons learned about persistence, collaboration, and acting without perfect clarity. Drawing on experiences from national coalitions, global energy transitions, and on‑the‑ground progress across states and cities, she will explore how meaningful change often emerges from local action, cross‑generational teamwork, and small decisions that compound over time. For students stepping into this work—whether directly or indirectly—this talk offers pragmatic advice for shaping culture, influencing systems, and sustaining hope in a messy world. The message is simple: keep going
Speaker Bio: Marcene Mitchell is the Senior Vice President of Climate Change at WWF. Marcene is advancing our important climate agenda in the US and globally and building greater synergies across our climate change mitigation and resilience initiatives—with a particular focus on nature-based climate solutions. Marcene’s role is crosscutting at WWF, because addressing the climate crisis cuts across all aspects of our work. Marcene previously served as the Global Head of Climate Strategy and Business Development at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank. In this role at IFC and in previous positions, Marcene's expertise has been on creating new markets for business to invest in low-carbon technologies and infrastructure. She’s pioneered work at IFC in resource efficiency for the built environment and established new market transformation programs for developing countries in distributed solar generation, offshore wind, and waste and water management. In addition to her work internationally, Marcene has been part of Green Bank initiatives in the United States, which scale climate finance by leveraging public sector funds with private investment. She is currently the Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Montgomery County Green Bank, which brings renewable energy and energy efficiency to small businesses and moderate- and low-income households in Maryland. Marcene holds a degree in International Relations from Brown University and an MBA in Finance from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.