The Sierra Club’s former Executive Director Ben Jealous was the subject of a sexual harassment complaint before he was fired from his role in August.
Jealous was fired after the organization’s board voted unanimously in August to terminate his employment “for cause” after “extensive evaluation of his conduct,” the Sierra Club announced last month.
Earlier this year, Jealous was the subject of a sexual harassment complaint, a person familiar with the details of the complaint told POLITICO’s E&E News this week.
The Sierra Club has not publicly disclosed the details about the cause for firing Jealous, but the group said in a statement following his ouster that it would “continue to look into concerns raised regarding misconduct irrespective of who they are raised against.”
Bloomberg reported on Aug. 28 that a Sierra Club employee had filed a workplace misconduct complaint earlier this year with the group’s board of directors alleging that Jealous had engaged in sexual harassment and bullying during his tenure as executive director.
The Sierra Club declined to comment on the complaint or on whether it played a role in Jealous’ termination.
“Protecting and respecting the privacy of all parties, Sierra Club does not comment on personnel matters. When we receive complaints, we investigate them,” Sierra Club spokesperson Jonathon Berman said Thursday.
The group sent an all-staff email the day the Bloomberg story ran last week detailing resources available to employees facing sexual harassment, but the email did not directly address the reporting.
Jealous, the former head of the NAACP and the Sierra Club’s first Black leader, says he faced discrimination and a “campaign against” him.
“For nearly two years, I raised concerns about racial discrimination and retaliation I saw in the Sierra Club,” Jealous said in a statement. “I worked to address them through dialogue and then through mediation. The response was a campaign against me that escalated until my termination a few hours after I asked for an arbitration.”
Jealous said after his ouster that the board’s move was “disheartening” and that he had begun the process under his contract to fight the decision. He retained a Los Angeles-based civil rights and employment firm to represent him.
“No one can be surprised that the Sierra Club has resorted to personal attacks. That’s how racial retaliation works. When you’re being discriminated against, they don’t accuse you of being Black,” Jealous said last week in a statement.
“We see the pattern again now — I file an arbitration complaint detailing the discrimination and retaliation I faced, accusations follow a few days later. It’s sad some would rather tear down people in the movement than unite to protect our wild places and our planet from unprecedented threats,” he said.
A sexual harassment complaint “came forward under the prior board and it came in the wake of Ben filing a very lengthy complaint of harassment by members of the executive committee,” said Aaron Mair, who served on the Sierra Club’s board of directors until his term expired in May and a new board was seated. Mair, who previously served as the Sierra Club’s first African American president from 2015 until 2017, declined to describe the contents of either complaint.
“It smells of retaliation to me,” he said.
But Berman said Thursday that Jealous’ “new claim that he was terminated a few hours after he asked for an arbitration is demonstrably false.”
“The Board voted unanimously to terminate him for cause on July 10, 2025, and Mr. Jealous was informed in writing on that same day of the specific reasons for that decision and that his termination would take effect in 30 days on August 10, 2025 in accordance with the requirements of his employment contract,” Berman said.
The board’s Aug. 11 vote ratified its prior unanimous vote on July 10 to fire Jealous, Berman added.
Civil rights leader Al Sharpton warned of “serious racial implications” in Jealous’ firing.
“I am troubled by the Sierra Club’s manner in which they parted ways with Ben Jealous, a man who has carried himself with dedication, professionalism, and integrity in the time I have known him,” Sharpton said in a statement two days after Jealous was fired.
“The Board’s unanimous decision to terminate Mr. Jealous’ employment for cause had nothing to do with layoffs, the budget, or his race. Nor was he unfairly managed,” Berman wrote to staff in an Aug. 15 email. “The entire Board determined that it had no other option than to separate Ben Jealous from the organization in order to protect the organization, its employees, its values, and its mission.”
The Sierra Club board’s decision to terminate Jealous’ contract followed years of infighting between Jealous and the group’s employees, several rounds of layoffs in the organization and extensive turnover in the green group’s leadership ranks.
Of the 23 Sierra Club leaders included in the group’s 2023 tax filing, at least 14 of them have left the organization.
“When I started, I was informed that we had a $40 million deficit and a board mandate to get to a balanced budget within two years. That demanded tough choices,” Jealous said Thursday in a statement.
“It’s worth noting that I’m one of the Sierra Club leaders from 2023 who is no longer at the organization,” Jealous said. “The reasons for each departure may or may not be different, but it’s clear the board has its own ideas about direction.”
The Sierra Club’s board is slated to meet next week from Sept. 11 to 13, when the group is planning to “chart the organization’s leadership transition and reground our work in Sierra Club’s powerful 2030 Strategic Framework,” Berman told staff in the August email.
The group’s acting Executive Director Loren Blackford and Patrick Murphy, president of the Sierra Club’s board, have been meeting with groups of staff, Berman said.
“They are eager to hear your vision and your needs for the future of our work, as well as helping to address questions and concerns regarding the changes and time of renewal taking place at the Sierra Club,” he told employees.
