As the Associate for the Climate Reality Project’s Climate Speakers Network, Jill Leaness collaborates with a diverse group of local, state, and national partners to develop training programs that help peer messengers connect climate change with their community. Prior to this, Leaness served in the Peace Corps as a Community Environmental Conservation Volunteer in Panama, worked for the National Park Service, and she worked with various environmental nonprofit organizations. She served as a Student Delegate to the American Chemical Society at COP21.

As Climate and Business Manager at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Matt Banks works with businesses to build awareness and adoption of progressive corporate climate protection strategies. For 15 years, he used the brand power of WWF to mobilize companies to participate in a range of successful partnerships, including Climate Savers, the 3% Solution, the Science-Based Targets Initiative, Business Backs Low-Carbon USA, Renewable Energy Buyers Principles, and the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance. Before joining WWF, Banks worked for AtKisson, Inc., where he developed sustainability indicators for the island of Nantucket, the city of Pittsburgh, and the Trust for Public Land. In his work for the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, he launched the greenhouse gas emissions inventory and planning project for the city of Boston. The coauthor of Good Cop/Bad Cop: Environmental NGOs and Their Strategies Toward Business, Banks has also received the Business Sustainability Initiative award from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.

As Director of Business Engagement for the Climate Reality Project, Sarah Orsay helps make climate action an urgent reality within the private sector. To do this, she applies her diverse experience from nearly 30 years working on Wall Street, with nonprofit organizations, and with municipal governments. During her career, Orsay has served as a Managing Director in derivative sales at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, and as CEO of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. In late 2007, she retired from her New York-based career to spend more time with her family and volunteer in her community. In 2013, she became the Director of Parks and Recreation for her hometown, Rumson, New Jersey. She currently serves on Rumson’s Environmental Commission.