Adam Werbach (1972 – )
American environmentalist

Adam Werbach was born in Tarzana, California, the second son of a psychiatrist father and therapist mother. His strong environmental conscience was nurtured by his parents, who were both activists in the Sierra Club . Werbach became a Sierra Club member himself at age 13 and formed the Sierra Student Coalition (SSC) at age 19, composed of 300,000 members. He served two years on the Sierra Club's Board of Directors as a member of the Club's national membership committee and volunteer development committee. Then on May 18, 1996, at the age of only 23, Werbach was elected president of the Sierra Club.

It was David Ross Brower , 60 years older than Werbach, who ran the campaign for Werbach to be elected president by the 15-member board, which in turn is elected by the Sierra Club membership at large. As the youngest president ever to lead the Sierra Club, Werbach works with the executive director and other staff to manage an organization of about 600,000 members and a $44 million annual budget. The average age of Sierra Club members is around 47, emphasizing the fact that younger generations are currently under-represented in the environmental fields. One of Werbach's goals is to recruit this younger group by appealing to what interests them—the present and how it will affect their personal future.

Werbach believes: "The environment is the primary issue that prompts this generation, my generation, to take social and political action. Our job is to get the word out to them and to give them a place to act on their anxieties and convictions. My goal is to make that place the Sierra Club."

As a high school student, Werbach founded and served as the first director of the Sierra Club's national student program, the Sierra Student Coalition, which has trained, registered, and involved thousands of students in all states with Sierra Club conservation campaigns. He also organized a conference of environmental youth leaders from 20 countries for the first World Youth Leadership Camp in 1996. During this same year he earned a B.A. from Brown with a double major in Political science and Modern culture and media.

Werbach has many hobbies, including music, and has toured the United States, Europe, and Asia, singing baritone and playing the guitar with a men's vocal group at Brown University. He has also written several journal articles and a novel entitled Whirled, and has worked on several films concerning both natural- and socially-constructed environments. His book Act Now, Apologize Later was published in 1998 and prompted others of his generation to become much more aware of the world around them. Werbach also currently runs a cable access show, The Thin Green Line, which focuses on the environment.

[Nicole Beatty ]