By Parke Troutman, Utility Campaign Manager
Joining SanDiego350 as staff is a dream job for me: by the time I left the County Public Health Service at the end of 2021, I had long known that I wanted to work on climate change. A friend introduced me to the SD350 Leg Team. I would ultimately become a volunteer co-chair before I had to step down to take a full-time position at an allied organization (Mid-City CAN where I worked on youth justice, cannabis revenue and the Youth Opportunity Pass).
I’m very much a political animal. My first action was attending a rally in support of a school levy around fifth grade. My first presentation on global warming (early 1980s, small-town Ohio) was in my fourth grade class and I was left with the impression that it was the first time my classmates had heard of the term. Over the years, I participated in actions from petition gathering for an effort to make Antarctica an international park to pamphletting about keeping evolution in classrooms to going on strike as a teaching assistant at UCSD.
I wrote my dissertation at UCSD on the politics of the City and County of San Diego’s general plan updates, which provided a good snapshot of efforts to make regional development more sustainable on the cusp of AB 32, the landmark law that established the framework for California’s efforts to reduce emissions. Afterwards I lived a year in Hong Kong and another in upstate New York and came back to San Diego to begin a decade of food policy advocacy (urban ag reform at the City of San Diego, CalFresh/SNAP and school meals access at the state and federal levels). Then I worked in the County Public Health Service on food policy and then tobacco control. After I left the County, I had a chance to recenter and focus on what I wanted to work on. I attended a meeting of the Leg Team and the rest is history.