Pacific Environment
Gwen Dobbs is a seasoned communications professional with extensive experience in environmental advocacy and media relations. Currently serving as the Senior Communications Manager at Pacific Environment since September 2021, Gwen previously held the position of Director of Media Relations at Defenders of Wildlife from January 2018 to August 2021. With a solid foundation in strategic communications developed through roles such as Communications Director and Campaign Communications Coordinator at Alaska Wilderness League, Gwen also accumulated significant expertise as a Senior Associate at ICF International, where responsibilities included leading marketing efforts for ENERGY STAR products. Early career experiences include positions as a Marketing Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers, a Senior Analyst at Logicon Syscon (now Northrop Grumman), and a Staff Assistant at the Congressional Arts Caucus. Gwen holds a B.A. in English from Allegheny College, earned in 1994.
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Pacific Environment
Pacific Environment empowers communities to protect their well-being and the natural world around them. We get money and expertise to the ground in challenging venues on the Pacific Rim, including China, Russia, and the Alaskan Arctic. By strengthening communities and protecting the environment in such places, we also promote transparency, public participation, and legal enforcement, which form the basis on which people can achieve lasting protection of their health and the environment. Pacific Environment offers one of the very few granting and training programs serving grassroots leaders around the Pacific Rim. At the heart of our long-term commitment to community-led environmental activism is a comprehensive support program. The community leaders and groups we partner with consistently tell us that the value we provide stems from three things: 1) giving them financial and mentoring support; 2) bringing them together in coordinated networks; and 3) supplying much needed expertise for their campaigns (e.g., technical, scientific, legal). Over three decades we have nurtured more than 150 grassroots organizations around the Pacific Rim and provided millions of dollars. In turn, the networks we foster create concentric ripples outward to many more people and organizations that ally together to undertake public education, litigation, media outreach, large-scale advocacy campaigns, and sophisticated policy work. To complement these community efforts, Pacific Environment has developed substantial expertise in global policy venues typically beyond the reach of local leaders. For example, we have obtained one of the few seats available to NGOs at the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a U.N. agency that writes the rules for the high seas. We use this seat to advocate for rules that protect marine mammals and indigenous food security, curb greenhouse gas emissions, and protect Arctic waters from the dangers of catastrophic oil spills.