Mary Anne Hitt

Mary Anne Hitt is an environmental campaigner with more than 25 years of experience leading campaigns and organizations focused on climate change, clean energy, and environmental justice. Hitt served as executive director of Appalachian Voices, a nonprofit conservation group dedicated to addressing mountaintop mining, fracked-gas pipelines, and other environmental challenges in Appalachia, while promoting energy and economic alternatives for Appalachian communities.

Hitt later joined the Sierra Club as deputy director of the Beyond Coal Campaign and subsequently became director. In this role, she worked to reduce coal pollution, address climate disruption, and advance clean energy initiatives. Under her leadership, the campaign and its partners blocked the construction of 200 proposed U.S. coal plants, secured the retirement of two-thirds of existing U.S. coal plants, and contributed to the growth of clean energy. Hitt also served as the Sierra Club's national director of campaigns. Throughout her tenure, she emphasized the importance of a just and equitable energy transition, advocating for support for workers affected by the shift from fossil fuels to clean energy.

Hitt's work has been recognized in media and policy circles. She was named to the POLITICO 50 list of thinkers, doers, and visionaries transforming American politics, and was included in the Washingtonian's "The New Guard: People Who Are Shaping Washington." SNL Energy also recognized her as one of the ten most influential people of the year. Hitt has appeared on Good Morning America, MSNBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and National Public Radio. She was featured in the National Geographic film "From the Ashes" and the Emmy-winning climate series "Years of Living Dangerously."

Hitt is a contributor to "All We Can Save," a Penguin Random House anthology of essays and poetry by women climate leaders, and Patagonia's book "Tools for Grassroots Activists." She co-hosts "No Place Like Home," a podcast exploring climate change through personal stories, with Anna Jane Joyner. Hitt is a public voices fellow of the OpEd Project and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, and a senior fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program.

Hitt has served as senior director and managing director of U.S. initiatives at Climate Imperative, a project focused on reducing emissions to address climate change. Her career is marked by measurable achievements in clean energy advocacy, climate policy, and environmental justice.