With support from the Julia R. Brown Education and Research Fund, UCSD undergraduate and Climate Change Studies Minor Mollie King traveled to San Francisco to attend the Green Jobs Pavilion during SF Climate Week, where she explored emerging career pathways in climate solutions. Through panels, workshops, and conversations on topics ranging from conservation and climate finance to storytelling, mentorship, and AI, she gained new insight into how her skills and values can translate into meaningful climate work. The experience left Mollie feeling more confident, connected, and inspired as she charts her future in the climate career space.
On April 24, 2026, I was given the epic opportunity to attend the Green Jobs Pavilion for SF Climate Week, hosted by a young startup company called the Green Jobs Board.
As an Environmental Anthropologist – I believe that the climate crisis is the biggest problem plaguing our future because it’s ultimately a crisis in the knowledge of care. Academia is only starting to realize the role of climate solutions in our modern society – only starting to build the career flow and even the vocabulary behind it.
The career path ahead of me is being written at the same pace as my footsteps – which is both incredibly exciting and incredibly scary.
I don’t know what I’m going to do after I graduate.
Sitting in the conference room in an unfamiliar part of the city of San Francisco with strangers, I was surrounded by people in vastly different stages of life, but all in the same place as me:
A place of desire for change, searching for fulfilling careers,
Wanting to live a life where our work is rooted in care,
Wanting to make a change.
The Green Jobs Board was founded 4 years ago by two Cal Berkeley graduates who wanted a better network for building green futures. I came across their Instagram about a year ago. Now, the Green Jobs Board is an incredible network of interactive resources and mentors – connecting both professionals and prospective employees in the climate career space.
I greatly admire Kristy Drutman and Usman Fadimallah (the co-founders) for completely changing this career space for new professionals like me since their own time navigating the post-undergraduate scene.
The conference was split into three interactive spaces: the Pathways room which hosted 1:1 career coaching sessions and resume workshops, the Campsite which consisted of a small career fair featuring green products, food, and an interactive art exhibit, and the Treehouse with a full-day schedule of panelist discussions broken down by career paths. I spent most of my day at the panelist discussions, taking copious notes and trying to soak in as much information as I possibly could. Here is what I learned at each of them:
1. What No One Tells You About Working In Climate: The Reality Of Working In Climate Careers
The speakers in this panel were representatives from the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps. Climate Corps is a workforce training and fellowship program designed to build emerging leaders in sustainability pathways. What I found most interesting about this program is that Climate Corps often happens at companies where their mission isn’t to reduce carbon emissions. Their experience working in environments where the business goal doesn’t necessarily align with sustainability reminded me a lot of my experience working at the Sustainability Collective at UCSD. It’s like being given a seat at the table, but the ‘seat’ is more like a really short stool…
Working in these kinds of environments can feel draining and sometimes a bit disheartening – yet paving the way for sustainability in traditionally non-sustainable fields is incredibly important. Julia Wilson, the manager of Sustainability Intelligence at Salesforce gave empowering advice: “it really is your network that pushes you along” and “think about how your skills are transferable. Lead by impact.”
2. How To Transition Into A Climate Career
Sarah Fuentes – the Founder and President of SmartWaste USA – started her career in the finance industry and learned what she didn’t like about business.
Kati Kallins – the leader of Adobe’s global sustainability program – came from the opposite side of the spectrum. She said, “I came from a community of tree huggers. I needed to meet some real capitalists” – landing her job at one of the biggest corporations in the world.
Alyssa Pace – the head of Marketing and Communications at SWAY – reminded me a lot of myself because she majored in environmental studies in her undergrad at UC Santa Barbara and came out with a jack-of-all-trades degree, making it hard to focus in on one skill to build a career out of. Though each of these leaders built their climate careers in vastly different ways, they gave us perhaps the best career advice of the day: the value in learning what you don’t want to do and where you will NOT have the most impact.
“Find the one vertical you are going to champion. Find your expertise because that knowledge is something a founder would pay good money for.”
– Kati Kallins
“No one’s gonna advocate for your passion more than you.”
– Sarah Fuentes
3. Conservation Jobs
Samatha Jovanovic from Sustainable Ocean Alliance, Victorina Arvelo from Greenbelt Alliance, and Dennis Mabasa from the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy discussed the intersectionality in conservation careers as an important space for conserving communities, conserving education and knowledge, and supporting startups that prioritize nature-based solutions. Conservation isn’t just about protecting endangered animals and plants. Dennis said it best, “Conservation is relational. The relationship in animals, in Earth, and in people.”
4. Climate Finance & Philanthropy Careers
Did you know that venture capitalists actually value people with scientific backgrounds in the climate finance space? I sure didn’t. Alekhya Mukkavill from Climate Works and Sandy Rou-Hui Sun, a recent graduate from the dual degree Masters in Climate Solutions from UC Berkeley, brought eye-opening insider knowledge for people who want to break into the climate finance scene.
Excitingly, the funding pool is expanding in climate finance as we speak. In addition to a plethora of resource plugs for people who want to keep up with climate investment trends (email me and I’ll send you the list), I learned a good piece of climate finance jargon:
Sustainable finance is aligning public and private flows with goals of the Paris Agreement whereas nature finance is the same but with a focus on conservation. The more you know…
5. So You Want To Change The World
This panel was my favorite part of the whole conference. Environmental Psychologist Dr. Renee Lertzman led us in a fascinating workshop to understand how we can position ourselves to truly make change in the world around us. Adapted from a psychological practice known as motivational interviewing to help climate leaders, she calls this process Becoming Guides. I think many people who participate in climate solutions empathize with the sentiment that sometimes it feels like nothing is working. How do we get people to actually change?
It turns out, the recipe for change is really simple: engagement and compassion. “People are more receptive to new information when it’s delivered in the mode of social connection over confrontation.”
6. Energy & Urban Jobs Panel
Honestly, the energy sector is one that I thought I would avoid when mapping out my post-grad plans – because I didn’t think that I had the necessary skills for it. Lincoln Beavens, an energy leader at Stanford challenged this notion, stating, “The greatest success comes from horsepower and passion. Expertise can be taught and learned.”
7. Sustainable Fashion – The Power Of Circularity
Mira Musank from Rethink the Runway, Noelle Bonner from The Nobo, and Clementia Martinez Masarweh from Sustainable Latina – brought great energy to this panel. Their conversation centered around reimagining what the local fashion economy can look like, and how sustainable fashion is already changing the culture. Diversity, creativity and inclusivity are already much more celebrated in this space than traditional fashion spaces – even among the “high end ” of sustainable fashion. They talked about how sustainable fashion is already set to become increasingly important in California due to SB 707: the Textile Recovery Act, which will hold brands responsible for the end-of-life processes of their items. Lucky for us, this creates a huge space for innovation in the fashion industry, as companies prepare to fully comply with this law by 2030!
“You all have agency, you all can change things and we all can be solutions together.”
– Mira Musank
8. Data & AI Literacy / Climate Tech, Data & Supply Chain Careers
These two panels brought up incredibly relevant and fascinating conversations about the role of AI in our sustainable futures. AI is undoubtedly the hottest trend in tech. It has the potential to do great things like decarbonize the built environment and undo the harms of oppressive capitalist industries – but it also has the capacity to exacerbate them. Careers in climate tech and data are inevitably going to involve artificial intelligence. The question is, how do we lean into those contradictions and use AI for good and on the edge? Rather than thinking about how we can stop AI, how can we implement this technology ethically in a way that reduces downstream effects?
9. Marketing & Storytelling Careers
When you put together a panel of storytellers, of course their conversations are going to be incredibly inspiring. One of the panelists put it best, “storytelling is all about getting people to fall in love.” Tierney Sheehan from Re-volv, Louise Wilson from Futerra, Erin Axelrod from Lift Economy, Andy Rapista from Mad Earth Foundation and Julia Kuwabara from Center for Cultural Power – did a great job of that. They shared really valuable insights about the importance of sharing stories and leveraging networks to move capital towards those who are most vulnerable, shifting the cultural narrative from helplessness to agency.
Julie Kuwabara identified a term that I really resonated with called Culture Power: the belief that artists and culture bearers are the way that we change culture.
Together, the panelists brought really inspiring sentiments to the conference, such as the idea that the next economy already exists everywhere, the solutions are already here, and people already want them – we just aren’t giving it to the people enough. I don’t know about you, but I really needed to hear that.
10. Green Mentorship Panel
Finally, to close out the conference, I attended the Green Mentorship Panel. Chad Frischmann, the leader of Project Drawdown and Regenintel, Erin Sirvinskas from Plant Futures Initiatives and Galith Levy, the Chief Executive Officer of Climate Solutions Prize – gave excellent advice for arguably the most essential step in building a career: mentorship. They humanized the idea of mentorship in career spaces, emphasizing how a good mentorship doesn’t feel transactional. Good mentorship involves mutual respect and co-learning, where both parties are mentoring each other.
They recommended that as new professionals, we focus on these 3 things:
- Intentional Relationship Building: Mentors will find a way to support and help the journey as long as you’re willing to put in the hard work.
- Come with Gratitude: Appreciate acknowledgement from both sides. You don’t want their knowledge to feel extracted or exploited.
- Be Interested in the World Around You: Pause. Breathe. Rather than be mission-driven, what is the mission that you are derived from?
Coming home from this conference, I feel more confident in my own skills navigating the climate solutions career space. I have a better sense of how to identify my own skills and what they could be used for, and I can’t wait to execute all of the knowledge gained. The Green Jobs Pavilion was a beautiful mosaic of students with similar passions, adults in the midst of big career switches, young professionals and senior climate solutionists that together create an unexpectedly welcoming, world-building community that I am incredibly proud to be a part of and excited to engage with moving forward. The Green Jobs Board is ultimately building a career ecosystem that I am sure will invigorate the climate solutions community for years to come.
Finally, I would like to thank the Center for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation for their support throughout my undergraduate journey. I am incredibly grateful to the Julia R. Brown Fund for enabling me to pursue my curiosity about climate solutions and to continue developing the ideas, skills, and experiences that have grown from it.
And to the Climate Change Studies community, together we have the power to change the world.
Blog content and images provided by Mollie King – thank you!