Scott Parkin is a trainer, coordinator and organizer in social justice and environmental movements. He has worked with anti-corporate global justice, anti-war, labor, environmental and climate movements in North America, Europe and Australia.
Currently, Scott is Rainforest Action Network’s Organizing Director. Before his current position, Scott spent 12 years as a Senior Campaigner on RAN’s Climate Team and led campaigns against Wall Street banks, mountaintop removal coal mining and the Keystone XL pipeline.
“The moments that stand out to me as most inspirational are where we’ve stood on the frontlines with impacted folks. The clearest example of this to me is when we worked with people in the Coal River Valley in southern West Virginia on a mass march and civil disobedience in 2009. We were surrounded by hundreds of angry miners and their families. The state police tried to get us to disperse for safety reasons, but we followed the lead of the local organizers, marched and sat-in at a coal processing facility. Michael Brune, James Hanson, Darryl Hannah, Amanda Starbuck were among the 32 people arrested, as well as coalfield leaders like Judy Bonds and Larry Gibson. Judy Bonds was assaulted by the wife of a miner during the sit-in. It was a very scary moment, but one I’m proud to have been a part of.”
