The Climate Reality Project, an environmental nonprofit organization founded by former Vice President Al Gore, announced Monday that veteran clean energy advocate Phyllis Cuttino is set to lead the organization.
Cuttino, who was formerly director of the clean energy program at the Pew Charitable Trusts, will become the Climate Reality Project's new president and CEO, beginning June 1.
She said the group's work to promote sustainability and find solutions to the climate crisis "couldn't be more urgent."
"I look forward to engaging with the broader climate and environmental justice movement to catalyze a global response to the climate crisis and promote a just, equitable, and clean future for all," Cuttino said in a statement.
She will take the reins from Ken Berlin, who has served as the Climate Reality Project's president and CEO since 2014. Berlin announced his retirement from the organization last year.
Gore, who founded the organization in 2005, said Cuttino is a "proven leader" in climate advocacy, whose work has laid the groundwork for a transition away from harmful fossil fuels to clean energy alternatives.
"She is fluent not only in climate policy, she has demonstrated a deep commitment to building broad coalitions of climate activists dedicated to equitable and ambitious climate action," Gore said in a statement. "I am excited to work with her to move The Climate Reality Project into our next chapter."
Cuttino was most recently executive director of the Climate Action Campaign, which represents a coalition of 12 national climate, environmental justice and public health organizations, including the Sierra Club, the Environmental Defense Fund and the National Hispanic Medical Association.
She also served from as a managing director at Climate Nexus, a nonprofit communications group that focuses on issues around climate change, and was a senior staff member for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Brock Adams, D-Wash.
From 1999 to 2003, Cuttino was vice president of public affairs for the United Nations Foundation and the Better World Fund, which were set up to manage entrepreneur Ted Turner's $1 billion gift to support U.N. causes.
The Climate Reality Project said Cuttino's candidacy was unanimously approved by the organization's board of directors.