About MN350's new ED
Sam Grant has been organizing around the intersection of economic, cultural and environmental justice since working on his college campus for divestment from South Africa and working for passage of legislation ensuring that both workers and communities have the right to know about toxic chemicals in their workplaces and communities.
For the past three decades he has blended teaching at Metropolitan State University and other higher education institutions; on-the-ground organizing projects focused on justice and well-being; and consulting to individuals, organizations and communities leading work on the issues identified above.
Sam led the Environmental Sustainability Program as HECUA from 2015 until late 2019. He also served as founding president of the Sierra Leone Foundation for New Democracy, which is promoting eco-village development in West Africa as a response to climate change in highly impacted regions and began work on a Ph.D. in transformative studies, focused on climate justice and the African Diaspora.
Sam brings decades of nonprofit leadership, transformative organizing, and love to the work of MN350. He looks forward to engaging all Minnesotans in a movement that delivers sufficient reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and brings all our creativity together in a just transition that promotes a healthier future for all of us on our beautiful earth home, which all of us come to respect and honor with the way we live our lives well together.
Sam lives in the metro area with his wife, Zea; their daugther, Sol; and her dog, Tiki. When not engaging his passions for teaching and mentoring emergent leaders, organizing with communities for environmental justice, or facilitating strategic change with organizations as a consultant, Sam most loves to chill and spend quality time with family and friends and spend abundant time in nature (when it is not cold).
“I am delighted to be joining MN350 because of its incredible work leading Minnesota’s climate change movement. I am excited to add value by broadening the movement as a movement for all, and deepening the movement with a more explicit and relational focus on climate justice.” — Sam Grant
