Anne Jellema has a track record of taking on advocacy gigs when times are tough.
A few years back, she took the helm of the international development organization, Hivos, which is known for its work on LGBTQ rights. Shortly after she took the job as that group’s CEO, the “worldwide backlash against queer rights started happening,” she said.
Last October, the global climate activism group 350.org announced Jellema would be succeeding May Boeve as its executive director starting in January. Then Donald Trump won the presidential race in November, prompting a tectonic shift in global climate policy.
“It feels like I doom whatever cause I get associated with,” Jellema joked during a recent Zoom interview from South Africa, where she’s lived for more than two decades.
