Team – Cool LA

Cool LA Team

TEAM

Program Manager

Miranda Clendening

Miranda Clendening is Program Manager for Cool LA responsible for managing the overall initiative.

Miranda’s skills include non-profit management, whole system community design, partnership development, technology integration, and large-scale event management. As former Executive Director for Unify she brought tens of millions of people together around the world in multiple unitive events. She is passionate about second order change, climate action and community regeneration.

Managing Director

David Gershon

David Gershon directs the Cool LA initiative.

David is CEO of Empowerment Institute and creator of the Cool Block program and Cool City Challenge. His experience includes developing sustainable lifestyle campaigns for over 200 cities worldwide and behavior change programs empowering millions of people to adopt low carbon lifestyles. It also builds on his expertise in creating large scale transformative social change initiatives. The largest of which was the First Earth Run which engaged 25 million people and 45 heads of state in 62 countries to pass a torch of peace around the world. This event was witnessed by a billion people through the global media.

Cool Block Coach

Erica Hart

Erica Hart is filmmaker and Cool Block coach for Cool LA.

Erica is a documentary director, producer, and editor. She has lived and worked in LA since graduating from Northwestern University’s radio/television/film program in 2010. She was a successful Cool Block leader who organized a highly diverse team in the Palms Neighborhood during the alpha pilot.

Moonshot Climate Action Plan Director

Mo Lovegreen

Mo Lovegreen is Moonshot Climate Action Plan Director for Cool LA responsible for the carbon neutral neighborhood strategy.

Mo is the former Director of Sustainability at University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) where she served in this role for 25 years. She was the architect of UCSB’s carbon neutral by 2025 initiative, the first carbon neutral plan in the UC system and the most aggressive in the country. She subsequently guided all ten campuses down this path. She has also consulted to numerous cities and institutions on the development of carbon neutrality initiatives.

Technology Director

Carlen Young

Carlen Young is Technology Director for Cool LA responsible for design upgrades and maintenance of the Cool Block and Cool Neighborhood platforms.

Carlen is passionate about community psychology, empowerment and second order change solutions. He applies these passions to increase personal agency and planetary well-being through designing social impact web and app platforms. As a psychology researcher with the University of California, Santa Cruz, Carlen spent a decade researching community building strategies and tools.

Join The Team

Cool LA Team

Miranda Clendening

Miranda Clendening

David Gershon

David Gershon

Erica Hart

Erica Hart

Mo Lovegreen

Mo Lovegreen

Carlen Young

Carlen Young

Miranda Clendening

David Gershon

Erica Hart

Mo Lovegreen

Carlen Young

© 2022 Empowerment Institute

Cool LA is an initiative of Empowerment Institute and part of its mission of empowering cities to become carbon neutral by 2030.