Kirk Anne Taylor to Join Climate Action Pathways for Schools as Executive Director

Climate Action Pathways for Schools (CAPS) is pleased to announce that Kirk Anne Taylor has been selected as its Executive Director. Ms. Taylor begins her new role in January 2022.

Kirk Anne Taylor

Since 2019, Ms. Taylor has been Director of Community Engagement for Ten Strands where she oversaw advocacy, communications, strategic planning, and supported the California Environmental Literacy Initiative — a public-private partnership that is advancing environmental literacy for California’s 6.2 million public school students. While at Ten Strands, she led an advocacy campaign to raise $6M (via CA education trailer bill AB 130, 2021) to develop California’s first state-funded climate and environmental justice K–12 curriculum. With the passage of this bill, California became the first state in the country to use public funding to develop a free standards-aligned climate and environmental justice curriculum. 

“Kirk Anne has dedicated her career to environmental protection and teaching sustainability. She recognizes it’s critical to equip students, especially in under-resourced communities, with the education and project experience they’ll need to tackle the immense environmental challenges we all face. The CAPS Board is thrilled to have Kirk Anne at its helm!” Bill Kelly, CAPS President

Previous to her time at Ten Strands, Mr. Taylor was the inaugural Executive Director of ChangeScale — a partnership of museums, parks, school districts, and community-based organizations in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Area. At ChangeScale, she led the partnership from its early incubation to the development of a robust network of more than 50 diverse organizations focused on increasing equitable access to environmental education opportunities. There she also led the establishment of an initiative with school districts to expand access to environmental education for K–12 students. Ms. Taylor served as the Urban Conservation Manager at The Field Museum in Chicago from 2004–2011 where she led conservation education programs in the Calumet region of Southeast Chicago and Northwest Indiana. 

“I am honored to be joining CAPS, whose mission is critical to building a more equitable and resilient future. Through CAPS’ innovative programs, students are leading the way for climate action in their school communities and gaining valuable college and career skills, while saving school districts money. I look forward to working with the CAPS Board and staff to shepherd CAPS into the future.” -Kirk Anne Taylor

Ms. Taylor comes to CAPS with over 20 years experience in nonprofit management, education, and sustainability. She holds an MPA from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and a BA in English from Hendrix College. 

About Climate Action Pathways for Schools

Founded in 2019, Climate Action Pathways for Schools (CAPS) partners with schools to provide inspiring climate education programs and implement projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while saving money for the school district. CAPS provides a project-based learning program to help prepare students for highly skilled college and career pathways and support them in the development of projects that mitigate climate change. At the same time, these projects reduce operating costs for school districts. CAPS aims its climate action program primarily towards under-resourced schools.