Climate Advocacy

The fossil fuel industry will live or die on interconnected economic, cultural, and political battlefields. In this course we will consider how to prompt progress across all of them. Through interactions with external experts, we will learn the techniques that underpin effective advocacy and develop approaches and materials for use in the full spectrum of climate campaigns. Particular attention will be directed toward leveraging the accomplishments of Middlebury’s Energy2028 initiative, creating videos, blogs, op-eds, and sketches that amplify the college’s efforts to address the climate crisis.



Kim Gagné has amassed deep experience as an advocate in a career spanning the worlds of law, diplomacy, and government relations. Kim's advocacy experiences include partnership at a Washington white collar criminal defense firm; service as a Foreign Service Officer in Haiti and Saudi Arabia, and at the U.S. Mission to the European Union; and senior-level service in Microsoft's legal and corporate affairs group in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Kim is a Senior Counselor with the strategic communications firm APCO Worldwide.