About - Oil Change International

ABOUT US

Oil Change International is a research, communications, and advocacy organization focused on exposing the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitating the ongoing transition to clean energy.

OUR STORY

Oil Change International (OCI) is a research, communications, and advocacy organization focused on exposing the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitating the ongoing transition to clean energy. Rooted in community solidarity and principled policy analysis, we work within larger movements to build a fossil free future.

Founded in 2005, Oil Change International now has a talented, experienced, and dedicated international team of twenty, backed by hundreds of thousands of supporters. We are data driven and people powered.

OUR STAFF

Elizabeth Bast

Executive Director

ebast@priceofoil.org

Elizabeth Bast is the Executive Director of Oil Change International. She has over 20 years of experience working at the intersection of environmental and social justice issues, pressuring governments and financial institutions to protect the climate, the environment, and communities.

Prior to being named Executive Director, Elizabeth was Oil Change International’s Managing Director for 10 years, where she led OCI’s international public finance work before taking on a larger organizational management role. Throughout her career, Elizabeth has been dedicated to promoting environmental and climate justice, particularly for communities in the global South. Elizabeth’s research and advocacy efforts have focused on international climate and energy policy issues, including phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, the need for access to clean energy and funding for adaptation to climate change, and energy policy and practices at international financial institutions. Prior to joining Oil Change in 2010, Elizabeth served as International Program Director at Friends of the Earth U.S., where she led the organization’s international climate campaign, and she also served on the Friends of the Earth International Executive Committee. Elizabeth has worked at Worldwatch Institute and the Environmental Policy Center, and holds a Master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an undergraduate degree from Stanford University.

Rebecca Concepcion Apostol

U.S. Program Director

rebecca@priceofoil.org

Rebecca is the U.S. Program Director for Oil Change International, spearheading U.S. efforts to keep fossil fuels in the ground, end subsidies and finance for fossil fuels, and work for a just transition to a clean energy system that leaves no one behind.

Rebecca has over twenty years of organizing and non-profit management experience. In the past decade, she has focused on building strong, progressive, and politically active communities of color – working with esteemed organizations including Planned Parenthood, APIAVote, and AFL-CIO. Prior to joining Oil Change, Rebecca served as National Organizing Director for Community Outreach Group, LLC, a political consulting firm specialized in canvassing and organizing campaigns for elections and nonprofit advocacy. During her tenure she oversaw programs to build political engagement with communities of color, led critical Coordinated and Independent Expenditure campaigns (helping oversee an annual budget of up to $13 million), and helped local affiliates in key states develop their political campaigns and organizing programs.

Rebecca was honored to contribute her and her family’s stories in A Time to Rise: Collective Memoirs of the Union of Democratic Filipinos (KDP). She is also a proud graduate of UCLA, Rockwood Leadership Fellowship for a New California, and the New Leaders Council Fellowship.

Romain Ioualalen

Senior Campaigner

romain@priceofoil.org

@rlalen

Romain Ioualalen is a Senior Campaigner with the Energy Transitions and Futures team at Oil Change International, working to build the political conditions for a just and equitable phase out of the fossil fuel industry globally.

Previously, Romain worked on climate diplomacy and long-term strategies at the European Climate Foundation and was in charge of coordinating the work of the Carbon Neutrality Coalition. Prior to that, he worked on EU climate policy woth in the European Parliament and the European Climate Foundation. He holds a M.Sc. in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Master of Public Affairs from Sciences Po Paris. He lives in Paris.

Vickal Khadka

Office Manager

vickal@priceofoil.org

Vickal Khadka is the Office Manager at Oil Change International, where he supports the organization’s administrative, financial, and fundraising needs and ensures the smooth functioning of OCI’s Washington, DC office.

Vickal has more than 13 years of experience in managing a range of administrative, human resource, and financial management services. Prior to joining OCI, Vickal worked with the Australian Embassy and different non-government organizations. In his work with NGOs, he has supported the identification of new programming and funding opportunities. He was also involved in reviewing partners’ work plans and contractual agreements as well as planning and executing program activities. Vickal lives in Rockville, MD, and loves trekking and playing soccer.

Aneesa Khan

Communications Officer

aneesa@priceofoil.org

@aneesa_khan95

Aneesa Khan is the Communications Officer at Oil Change International and she supports content creation as well as the development of innovative products and tools to support the dissemination of those materials.

With a passion for environmental law and creative storytelling, Aneesa joined the climate justice movement by organizing for climate reparations at the UN climate talks where she worked to make sure the voices of vulnerable black, brown, indigenous, and Global South youth were heard loud and clear over those of polluting industries. She comes to OCI with multiple years of experience as a youth activist and as an organizer with Friends of the Earth International, The Wilderness Society, and most recently, SustainUS – a youth-led climate justice organization where she still serves as the Executive Director. Aneesa believes that even though climate change worsens all inequalities, its unyielding deadline is the push that brings together existing movements for environmental justice, LGBTQ and womxn’s rights, indigenous rights, racial justice, jobs and welfare. She specializes in telling stories of environmental inequity and injustice through graphic design. Aneesa holds a BA in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic and is currently completing a Masters in Environmental Policy and Regulation at The London School of Economics.

Matt Maiorana

Digital Director

matt@priceofoil.org

@mattmaiorana

Matt Maiorana is Oil Change International’s Digital Director, where he manages the organization’s digital infrastructure and leads on the organization’s international communications efforts.

Prior to working with Oil Change, Matt worked for the Climate Action Network – International, Avaaz.org, and Greenpeace USA on a wide range of climate and energy issues. Matt has also been a strong advocate in the youth climate movement, working with the Energy Action Coalition, Sierra Student Coalition, and SustainUS where he served in leadership positions for 9 years. During this time he helped organize the first Power Shift in 2007 and was one of the founding members of YOUNGO, the official youth constituency at the UNFCCC.

Thuli Makama

Senior Advisor – Africa

thuli@priceofoil.org

Thuli Brilliance Makama is Oil Change International’s Senior Advisor for Africa, providing strategic direction and campaign support for the organization’s work in Africa. Thuli works closely with civil society organizations and other stakeholders in the Africa region to shift energy finance towards clean energy access and to expose the impacts of fossil fuel projects.

As a public interest environmental lawyer, Thuli has decades of experience advocating for public participation in environmental and economic development decisions. In 2010, she was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize also known as the Green Nobel. Prior to founding the Environmental Law Center, Thuli was Executive Director of the environmental justice organization Yonge Nawe/ Friends of the Earth Swaziland. She currently serves on the Boards of Greenpeace International and Environment Technology Concentration (ETC).

Alex Ortiz

Communications Associate

alex.ortiz@priceofoil.org

@ClimateOfAlex

Alex Ortiz is a Communications Associate at Oil Change International, where he supports the Communications Team and is working to accelerate the youth climate movement in its just transition to a world free of fossil fuels.

Prior to joining Oil Change, Alex organized students on his university’s fossil fuel divestment campaign as well as with Maryland PIRG on their successful campaign to ban fracking. He has also worked with 350Vermont, developing a four-day climate curriculum program, elevating local residents’ voices and enabling communication with key stakeholders to create collaborative change in their communities. Alex holds a B.A. in Government and Politics with additional studies in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from the University of Maryland.

Collin Rees

Senior Campaigner

collin@priceofoil.org

@collinrees

Collin Rees is a Senior Campaigner at Oil Change International working to stop the expansion of the fossil fuel industry, support grassroots resistance against dirty infrastructure, end public support for oil, gas, and coal, and wind down fossil fuel production with a just and equitable transition.

He has campaigned on climate and racial justice, labor issues, and new economic models for nearly a decade, spanning local to international levels. Prior to joining Oil Change, Collin worked to build the power of the student fossil fuel divestment movement at 350.org, and trained youth to run campaigns with the Energy Action Coalition (now the Power Shift Network). He campaigned at the international climate negotiations with youth advocacy group SustainUS and is now a Board member, and previously worked at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Collin studied Mechanical & Materials Science Engineering at Harvard University, and lives in Portland, ME.

Andrew Rowell

Contributing Editor, Priceofoil.org

andy@priceofoil.org

@andy_rowell

When not blogging for Oil Change, Andy is a freelance writer and journalist specializing in environmental issues. He has written about the oil industry and climate change for twenty years and his books include: ‘The Next Gulf’ and ‘Green Backlash’.

Andy is based in southwestern England. Andy is also a director of the non-profit company Public Interest Investigations, which runs SpinWatch.

Susan Rubinstein

Operations Director

susan@priceofoil.org

Susan Rubinstein is the Operations Director at Oil Change International, where she manages administrative, financial, and fundraising activities.

In her work with health and human services nonprofits, she has written grant proposals to foundations, corporations, and governmental agencies; managed HIV programs; and conducted organizational planning activities. Susan has contributed to the fight against HIV through research, needs assessments, strategic and program planning, evaluation, and quality improvement, including facilitating consumer and colleague input into all of these processes. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of Michigan.

Lorne Stockman

Senior Research Analyst

lorne@priceofoil.org

@LorneStockman

Lorne Stockman is a Senior Research Analyst at Oil Change International, where he researches and analyzes developments in the North American oil industry.

He has worked on oil campaigns as campaigner, campaign coordinator, researcher, and author for over fifteen years. Prior to joining Oil Change International on staff, he worked as a consultant with Greenpeace UK, Platform, and Oil Change as researcher and author of numerous reports and briefings studying investor risk in tar sands and other marginal oil sources. He has extensive research and campaign experience, including analysis and publications on climate change and energy, political economy of oil, transitions in energy markets, energy security, and financial risk; human rights, social justice, and environment & development; and political economy of development and trade issues. Lorne is the author of ‘The Next Gulf’ with Andrew Rowell and James Marriott. Lorne holds a Master’s Degree from King’s College London.

David Tong

Senior Campaigner

david.tong@priceofoil.org

@Davidxvx

David is a Senior Campaigner at Oil Change International. His work focuses on building public support for a managed decline to wind down fossil fuel production, with a just and equitable transition. He works as part of the Energy Futures & Transitions program.

Previously, David worked at WWF-New Zealand, where he was a key part of the campaign for the country’s Zero Carbon Act. He has also worked as a contractor for the Climate Action Network International (CAN), and in 2015 established the New Zealand CAN node. He is a former commercial litigator and community lawyer, and has an LLM (1st Hons) from the University of Auckland) specialising in human rights and climate law. He is also on the boards of Greenpeace Aotearoa New Zealand and the Aotearoa New Zealand Human Rights Foundation. He lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington, New Zealand)

Kelly Trout

Interim Energy Transitions and Futures Program Director

kelly@priceofoil.org

@kellyatrout

Kelly Trout is a Senior Research Analyst at Oil Change International, focusing on pathways to manage the decline of fossil fuel production as part of the organization’s Energy Futures & Transitions program.

Prior to joining the Oil Change team, Kelly served as communications director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network for four years, leading media and digital outreach strategies for regional campaigns to ban fracking in Maryland, challenge new fracked-gas pipelines in Virginia, and pass state-level clean energy and climate policies across Maryland, D.C., and Virginia. She was also a communications manager at Friends of the Earth U.S., where she played a key role in the group’s media and investigative work to block the Keystone XL pipeline. Kelly lives in Takoma Park, MD, and plays the violin in the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra.

Bronwen Tucker

Analyst

bronwen@priceofoil.org

@bronwentucker

Bronwen Tucker is an Analyst at Oil Change International, focusing on shifting public finance and subsidies towards a fair and 100% renewable future as part of the organization’s Stop Funding Fossils program.

Previously, Bronwen worked towards Indigenous rights and a just transition away from the tar sands in Alberta as a campaigner with the Council of Canadians and Greenpeace Canada. Her academic work has focused on evaluating climate and energy policies for their impacts on equity and mitigation, and on social movement theory. She got her start in advocacy as a student organizer for fossil fuel divestment, free tuition, and migrant justice in Quebec. Bronwen lives in Edmonton, Canada and holds a MSc from the University of Oxford and a B.A.&Sc. from McGill University.

David Turnbull

Strategic Communications Director

david@priceofoil.org

@david_turnbull

David Turnbull is the Strategic Communications Director at Oil Change International, developing communications, campaign, and narrative strategies to bring Oil Change’s research on the financing, influence and impacts of fossil fuels to the public, the media, and decision-makers.

Prior to his current position with Oil Change, David was Executive Director of Climate Action Network – International from 2008 to early 2012. At CAN- International, he worked to coordinate the network of 700 NGOs in dozens of countries to develop and advocate for global solutions to the climate crisis. Earlier, David was Communications Director of the US Climate Action Network, where he coordinated joint communications efforts for US NGOs focused on climate change. Before joining USCAN, David worked at the World Resources Institute as a Coordinator for a pair of international networks working to promote inclusive and accountable environmental governance. In a previous incarnation, David spent time on a mountaintop observing the “world’s worst weather” and conducting climate research at the Mount Washington Weather Observatory in New Hampshire.

Laurie van der Burg

Senior Campaigner

laurie@priceofoil.org

@LaurievdBurg

Laurie is a Senior Campaigner at Oil Change International. Her work focuses on ensuring a just transition through moving governments and financial institutions away from continued financing and permitting the expansion of oil and gas. She works as part of the Energy Futures & Transitions and the Stop Funding Fossils programs.

Previously, Laurie worked at Friends of the Earth Netherlands where she led a climate court case against Shell, filed on behalf of over 17000 people. Prior to that she worked with the Overseas Development Institute as a climate and energy researcher focusing on fossil fuel subsidies and energy access. She got her start in climate activism as a student working on a fossil fuel divestment campaign with Students for Sustainability Amsterdam. Laurie holds an LLM in Environmental and Climate Change Law from the University of Edinburgh and a Bsc in Liberal Arts and Sciences from Amsterdam University College. She lives in Amsterdam.

Susanne Wong

Senior Campaigner

susanne@priceofoil.org

@susanneir

Susanne Wong is a Senior Campaigner with Oil Change International’s Stop Funding Fossils program. She works with an international and Japanese-led coalition to end the Japanese government’s financing of coal.

Previously, Susanne worked at International Rivers where she campaigned to pressure the Asian Development Bank to provide compensation for communities affected by dams in Laos and organized a conference to strengthen the international movement to protect rivers and human rights. Susanne also worked with The Greenlining Institute to highlight the transformational impacts of California Climate Investments on low-income communities of color and to mobilize a coalition to encourage tech companies to invest in and support local communities in Oakland.

Stephen Kretzmann

Founder

@Kretzmann

Stephen Kretzmann founded Oil Change International in 2005 in order to educate about the true impacts of fossil fuels, to conduct research, education, and organizing to hasten the transition to clean energy.

Steve has worked on environmental and social issues around the global fossil fuel industry since 1990. After eight years in Greenpeace where he was an early leader in climate campaigns, he became the environmental adviser to the late Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People in Nigeria. For the next ten years, before founding Oil Change International, he worked with communities, public and private financial institutions, corporations, and organizations around the world concerned with the environmental, social, and economic impacts of the fossil fuel industry. He has always connected support for these community-based efforts with systemic critiques of the industry for climate reasons. Mr. Kretzmann has testified before U.S. Congress, authored numerous articles and reports, and is a regular media commentator on issues of corporate accountability, climate change, the global fossil fuel industry, and environmental and human rights.

OUR BOARD

Thomas Cavanagh, Chair
Executive Director, Bandaloop

Renato Redentor Constantino
Executive Director, Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities

John Durkalski, Treasurer
Partner, Butsavage & Durkalski, P.C.

D. Cole Frates
Co-Founder, Renewables Resources Group & EndOil

Leslie Harroun, Vice Chair
Director, Partners for a New Economy

Jonathan G. Kaufman
Executive Director, Advocates for Community Alternatives

Jennifer Krill
Executive Director, Earthworks

Melissa B. Mills, Secretary
Genetic Counselor, Stanford Children’s Hospital

Jason Scott
Co-Managing Partner, Encourage Capital

Sandra N. Smithey
Director, Program & Philanthropic Engagement
Shine Campaign

Rebecca Solnit
Writer

View our annual reports: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

View our financial audits: 2015-2016, 2016-2017, 2017-2018

View our 990 forms: 2015-2016, 2016-2017

ABOUT US

Oil Change International is a research, communications, and advocacy organization focused on exposing the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitating the ongoing transition to clean energy.

OUR STORY

OUR STAFF

Elizabeth Bast

Executive Director

ebast@priceofoil.org

Rebecca Concepcion Apostol

U.S. Program Director

rebecca@priceofoil.org

Romain Ioualalen

Senior Campaigner

romain@priceofoil.org

Vickal Khadka

Office Manager

vickal@priceofoil.org

Aneesa Khan

Communications Officer

aneesa@priceofoil.org

Matt Maiorana

Digital Director

matt@priceofoil.org

Thuli Makama

Senior Advisor – Africa

thuli@priceofoil.org

Alex Ortiz

Communications Associate

alex.ortiz@priceofoil.org

Collin Rees

Senior Campaigner

collin@priceofoil.org

Andrew Rowell

Contributing Editor, Priceofoil.org

andy@priceofoil.org

Susan Rubinstein

Operations Director

susan@priceofoil.org

Lorne Stockman

Senior Research Analyst

lorne@priceofoil.org

David Tong

Senior Campaigner

david.tong@priceofoil.org

Kelly Trout

Interim Energy Transitions and Futures Program Director

kelly@priceofoil.org

Bronwen Tucker

Analyst

bronwen@priceofoil.org

David Turnbull

Strategic Communications Director

david@priceofoil.org

Laurie van der Burg

Senior Campaigner

laurie@priceofoil.org

Susanne Wong

Senior Campaigner

susanne@priceofoil.org

Stephen Kretzmann

Founder

OUR BOARD

CONTACT

Have a question, comment, or concern? We would love to hear from you.

Oil Change International 714 G St. SE #202 Washington, DC 20003 United States

Email: info@priceofoil.org Phone: +1.202.518.9029

Have a question, comment, or concern?
We would love to hear from you.

Oil Change International
714 G St. SE #202
Washington, DC 20003
United States

Email: info@priceofoil.org
Phone: +1.202.518.9029