Mark Hays

Roles: Special Guest

Hays discussed BOTTLED LIFE (NESTLÉS GESCHÄFTE MIT DEM WASSER) at the 2014 EFF.

Mark Hays has conducted research, campaign development and advocacy for a wide range of environmental and social change organizations. He current serves as coalition coordinator for the Democracy Initiative, a new project convened by the Sierra Club, NAACP, CWA and Greenpeace that seeks to bring together a wide range of environmental and social advocacy organizations to support efforts by allied organizations to protect voting rights and push back against the negative influence of big money in politics.

Most recently, Mark was the coordinator of Public Citizen’s Democracy Is For People Campaign, an effort to build public support for a constitutional amendment that would challenge corporate interference in our democracy and overturn disastrous precedents set by the Supreme Court that have granted corporations the same free speech rights as ordinary people.

Previously, Mark also worked on energy and toxics issues for a statewide environmental group in Maine. There, he helped build and lead a coalition of conservation groups, faith communities and small businesses to support passage of a Maine Climate Action Plan that set goals in statute to reduce greenhouse gas emissions statewide.

Mark grew up in Iowa, graduated from Tufts University and the New England Conservatory of Music in 2001, and got his start in social change organizing through Green Corps, the field school for environmental organizing.