FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 1, 2020
Washington, DC – The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) is excited to announce that Amanda Kistler will serve in a new position as CIEL’s Vice President, effective January 1. In this role, Amanda helps to shape CIEL’s strategic vision and translate it into ambitious but achievable goals and plans across issue areas. She supports CIEL programs to be strategically aligned and effective, and enhances communication, transparency, and accountability across the organization. Amanda will continue to lead CIEL’s development and communications programs.
Amanda brings nearly ten years of experience at CIEL working across the breadth of its programs and operations. She began as a campaigner working to confront extractive industries in Mesoamerica, then shifted to become a program associate focused on biodiversity and deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon. In 2012, she launched CIEL’s first communications position. As she grew that team and led that program, she further expanded her role to include directing CIEL’s development strategy, including by increasing its budget $1 million in 2019. Prior to joining CIEL, Amanda worked as an international human rights observer in Guatemala with the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA), an experience that grounds her understanding of environmental justice and the grave risks people face as they defend their rights and environment. She continues to chair its Board of Directors.
“This new role reflects not only Amanda’s leadership within CIEL but also CIEL’s continuing evolution as an organization,” says CIEL President Carroll Muffett. “To meet the incredible challenges facing our world over the coming decade, CIEL needs to be constantly adapting to be smarter, more strategic, and more effective, without ever losing focus on the frontline communities that are at the heart of our work. Having worked alongside Amanda for the last nine years and watched her grow from strength to strength, I cannot imagine a better partner in that effort.”
“Amanda’s appointment to the senior executive team is a further recognition of CIEL’s core identity as an environmental rights and justice organization that uses the law as well as other tools in pursuing our mission,” says David Mattingly, Chair of CIEL’s Board of Trustees and Vice President for Programs at the Fund for Global Human Rights. “Amanda’s leadership has been instrumental in raising CIEL’s public profile as a thought leader and in embracing our role as an advocate for those most affected by the climate crisis and other threats to a healthy environment.”
“I’m thrilled to assume this new role at CIEL – one that strengthens our organizational capacity, builds resilience across teams and programs, and sets the organization on a path to more and bigger impacts in the years ahead,” says Amanda. “I’m deeply grateful for the trust of my colleagues and our Board, and I’m inspired by CIEL’s commitment to evolve and adapt as it responds to the ever-more urgent needs of the global environmental movement. I look forward to all we will accomplish together going forward – counterbalancing corporate power, reducing toxic risks, and ensuring human rights are at the center of environmental decision-making.”
Since 1989, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) has used the power of law to protect the environment, promote human rights, and ensure a just and sustainable society. CIEL seeks a world where the law reflects the interconnection between humans and the environment, respects the limits of the planet, protects the dignity and equality of each person, and encourages all of earth’s inhabitants to live in balance with each other. With offices in Washington, DC, and Geneva, Switzerland, CIEL pursues its mission through legal research and advocacy, education and training, with a focus on connecting global challenges to the experiences of communities on the ground.