Ryan Werder serves as Senior Advisor at U.S. Energy Foundation (EF). As EF’s Senior Advisor, Ryan supports the Program team in facilitating and launching innovative strategies with a particular focus on campaign design and building public will for equitable climate action. He also supports funding partners in connecting and learning from the deep knowledge within EF’s grantee network.
Ryan opened EF’s Midwest office in 2013 and subsequently led the regional team through nine years of growing and supporting the Midwest community of grantees and funders, serving through April 2022 as Senior Regional Director, Midwest.
Before joining the EF staff, Ryan was Deputy Director of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, where he helped guide the organization to four-fold growth during his tenure. He also led the organization’s work in convening and coordinating broad, diverse, and bipartisan coalitions around energy, land use, and water protections. He began his career as a Field Representative for Congressman John Dingell. In that role, at the height of the Great Recession, Ryan worked directly with families in diverse and hard-hit communities around Detroit on home foreclosures, worker displacement and retraining, economic development to spark new jobs, and protecting the last mile of the Detroit River as the nation’s first international wildlife refuge.
Ryan also serves as the Executive Director of Energy Action Fund, EF’s affiliated 501(c)(4) organization.
