Chinese Professor With World Economic Forum History Leads Critical Race, Gender Theory Research On Children At ASU, NAU

Chinese Professor With World Economic Forum History Leads Critical Race, Gender Theory Research On Children At ASU, NAU

By Corinne Murdock |

A professor hailing from China with a World Economic Forum (WEF) background is behind critical race and gender theory research on children at two of Arizona’s taxpayer-funded universities. 

Sonya Xinyue Xiao teaches psychological science and performs developmental research on moral and gender development at Northern Arizona University (NAU). Xiao was a postdoctoral scholar at the Arizona State University (ASU) T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (SSFD) from 2020 to 2022, where she taught until last year. NAU has Xiao on a tenure track. 

Presently, Xiao is also an affiliated research fellow for the Cultural Resilience and Learning Center (CRLC) in California and a member of the Diversity Scholars Network in the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan (UM). Xiao’s UM profile declares her social priority on children, youth, and families, with her specific focus pertaining to that priority on gender, sexuality, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, social class, and socioeconomic status.

“[Xiao] is investigating how early adolescents’ multiple intersecting identities in gender and race/ethnicity are related to their prosocial behavior toward diverse others over time, with youth from diverse ethnic racial backgrounds,” stated her UM profile. 

Additionally, Xiao has served as the programming committee member for the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) Caucus of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) since 2021. The SRCD has repeatedly opposed efforts to restrict or ban gender transitions for minors. 

Xiao’s published research papers have declared the need for parents to raise their children to embrace gender theory in themselves and their peers, under the claim that rejection results in poor social and emotional outcomes later in life, as well as to engage their children in diverse friendships, under the claim that those as young as preschoolers can be racist.

Characteristics aligning with progressive critical race and gender theories are what Xiao defines as “prosocial behaviors” throughout her research. 

Last year, Xiao contributed to a chapter entry in a book, “Gender and Sexuality Development.” The chapter expanded the understanding of gender to many gender identities.

Xiao’s work includes “gender integration,” which studies the differences between genders with the ultimate goal of total integration. Xiao’s team with the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (SSSFD) holds the belief that gender is fluid and not binary; they receive federal funding through the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).

Xiao’s research has also relied on participants’ self-reported gender identities. Elsewhere, her current research team’s most recent release of preliminary findings asked children “how much they think they look like girls and how much they think they look like boys,” and reported that 10 percent thought they looked like both genders, and nearly one percent believing they didn’t look like either gender. 

In May, Xiao’s work on gender integration was featured in an IES blog series focusing on “research conducted through an equity lens.” SSSFD professor Carol Martin said that their work aims to achieve diversity, equity, and inclusion in education. Martin further insisted that teachers need to break up naturally-occuring gender segregation in their students to encourage diversity.

“We study the importance of having diverse classrooms (mixed-gender in our case) and breaking down barriers that separate people from each other but stress that this diversity matters only when it is perceived as inclusive and fosters a sense of belonging,” said Martin. “For some students, additional supports might be needed to feel included, and we hope to identify which students may need these additional supports and what types of support they need to promote equity in classrooms around issues of social belongingness.”

According to her LinkedIn, Xiao attended Tianjin University of Science and Technology before beginning her career as a teacher at Zhenguang Primary School in Shanghai, China. While at Tianjin, Xiao had two notable back-to-back volunteering stints in 2010: first, a two-month gig at the Shanghai World EXPO 2010, then a month-long gig at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Summer Davos. For the latter gig with the WEF, Xiao reported providing document and verbal translation at the Lishunde Hotel, as well as assistance to conference attendees. 

China’s practice of its cultural subversion tactics on U.S. soil, especially involving children, have been widely reported over the years, most recently concerning TikTok. While the Beijing-based company behind the app pushes content ranging from the mind-numbing to dangerous to foreigners, it restricts Chinese youth to a domestic version, Douyin, which contains only educational and inspirational content. In its short existence, TikTok has become a major influence in American children’s development. 

Papers published while at ASU or NAU where Xiao was the principal author are listed below:

  1. Meet Up Buddy Up: An Effective Intervention To Promote 4th Grade Students’ Prosocial Behavior Toward Diverse Others
  2. Parents Matter: Accepting Parents Have Less Anxious Gender Expansive Children
  3. Family Economic Pressure And Early Adolescents’ Prosocial Behavior: The Importance Of Considering Types Of Prosocial Behavior
  4. Parents’ Valuing Diversity And White Children’s Prosociality Toward White And Black Peers
  5. Being Helpful To Other-Gender Peers: School-Age Children’s Gender-Based Intergroup Prosocial Behavior
  6. Interactions With Diverse Peers Promote Preschoolers’ Prosociality And Reduce Aggression: An Examination Of Buddy-Up Intervention
  7. Young Adults’ Intergroup Prosocial Behavior And Its Associations With Social Dominance Orientation, Social Positions, Prosocial Moral Obligations, And Belongingness
  8. Early Adolescents’ Gender Typicality And Depressive Symptoms: The Moderating Role Of Parental Acceptance
  9. A Double-Edged Sword: Children’s Intergroup Gender Attitudes Have Social Consequences For The Beholder
  10. Gender Differences Across Multiple Types Of Prosocial Behavior In Adolescence: A Meta-Analysis Of The Prosocial Tendency Measure-Revised
  11. Characteristics Of Preschool Gender Enforcers And Peers Who Associate With Them
  12. Will They Listen To Me? An Examination Of In-Group Gender Bias In Children’s Communication Beliefs
  13. Longitudinal Relations Of Preschoolers’ Anger To Prosocial Behavior: The Moderating Role Of Dispositional Shyness.

Xiao has also contributed in over a dozen other research papers uplifting critical race and gender theories, as well as promoting “nurturant parenting,” described as inductive discipline and punishment avoidance, versus the disciplinary model of “restrictive parenting,” described as punitiveness, corporal punishment, and strictness. That paper on nurturant versus restrictive parenting further advised that white parents should avoid restrictive parenting to ensure their children behaved better toward non-white peers. 

Other papers to which Xiao contributed argued that white parents who claimed to be color-blind or were displaying evidence of “implicit racial bias” caused their children to have less empathy toward Black children.

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.

Rep. Smith’s Bill Would Prevent Public Funding Of “Anti-Freedom” Agendas

Rep. Smith’s Bill Would Prevent Public Funding Of “Anti-Freedom” Agendas

By Daniel Stefanski |

An Arizona Republican legislator is looking to present voters with an upcoming opportunity to help protect their state’s sovereignty.

Earlier this week, freshman State Representative Austin Smith announced that he had introduced HCR 2040, which is a concurrent resolution to enact and order “the submission to the people of a measure relating to public monies.”

In a comment to AZ Free News, Smith said, “The public policy of this state, political subdivisions, and universities should be – public monies are not spent to join organizations that promote anti-freedom agendas listed in HCR2040. This HCR aims at the heart of what the World Economic Forum and the UN Climate Council are working to implement globally. HCR2040 is about protecting freedom. Period.”

The definition of the prohibited expenditures of public monies was laid out in the bill, as follows:

1. REDUCING THE CONSUMPTION OR PRODUCTION OF MEAT OR DAIRY PRODUCTS OR REPLACING ANIMAL-BASED PROTEIN WITH INSECT OR SYNTHETIC PROTEIN.

2. REDUCING OR REPLACING MOTOR VEHICLE TRAVEL WITH WALKING, BIKING, OR PUBLIC TRANSIT.

3. REDUCING OR LIMITING TRAVEL BY AIRPLANE.

4. LIMITING THE NUMBER OF ARTICLES OF CLOTHING AN INDIVIDUAL MAY PURCHASE OR OWN.

5. REUSING WATER THAT HAS TOUCHED HUMAN FECES AS A SOURCE OF MUNICIPAL DRINKING WATER.

6. REDUCING GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS OR TRACKING AND COLLECTING OF ANY INFORMATION OR DATA FOR DETERMINING CONSUMPTION-BASED EMISSIONS.

7. LIMITING THE INCREASE OF THE AVERAGE GLOBAL TEMPERATURE OR PRODUCING OR ADOPTING A CLIMATE ACTION PLAN.

8. REPLACING PRIVATE OWNERSHIP WITH SHARED OR RENTED GOODS AND SERVICES TO PROMOTE A CIRCULAR ECONOMY.

9. FURTHERING MARXIST IDEOLOGIES, INCLUDING STAKEHOLDER CAPITALISM.

10. IMPLEMENTING MASS SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS TO MONITOR MOTOR VEHICLE TRAVEL.

The resolution was cosponsored by Representatives Biasiucci, Carbone, Carter, Chaplik, Diaz, Dunn, Gillette, Griffin, Heap, Hendrix, Jones, Marshall, Martinez, McGarr, Montenegro, Parker, Parker, and Payne; as well as by Senators Hoffman and Wadsack.

If the resolution were to pass the Arizona House and Senate, it would be transmitted to the Secretary of State to be offered to the voters in the November General Election.

Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.

Mayor Gallego Proves Again That She’s Willing To Silence Anyone To Gain More Power

Mayor Gallego Proves Again That She’s Willing To Silence Anyone To Gain More Power

By Jeff Caldwell |

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego continues to govern as a tyrant. Just look at item 37 on the next agenda she set for the November 1 Phoenix City Council meeting. The item calls for the City of Phoenix to accept a grant from a Rockefeller-sponsored entity headquartered in Copenhagen to implement meat consumption mitigation. But it’s not just the item alone that’s the problem.

In the dark behind closed doors, the Mayor of Phoenix told city staff to limit public comment to only 5 agenda items per person. By doing so, she possibly went against city code and violated state open meeting law and her loyalty oath to uphold and protect both the Arizona and U.S. Constitutions.

The Mayor suppressing voices of constituents was imposed without the other city council members being informed. Although this regulation was discovered at the September 6 meeting, city staff admitted at the October 18 meeting that the Mayor is the one who directed them to limit public comment to a maximum of 5 total agenda items per person.

During the Call to the Public at that October meeting, I called out Mayor Gallego for her policy.

Before we delve into the destruction to public opinion that the Mayor’s regulation causes, the Phoenix City Clerk’s site says, “Citizens may… express their views on any published agenda item.” Phoenix City guidelines on public comment say people have the ability to speak for two minutes on agenda items outside of the public comment section.

While the limitation of commenting on 5 agenda items may not sound like a big deal, city meetings can have anywhere between 20-200 agenda items plus a general public comment agenda item. To put that into context, 5 out of 200 items is only 2% of the meeting.

Furthermore, Mayor Kate’s restriction prevents the public from petitioning their elected officials if there are more than 5 agenda items that need public input.

Let’s say there are the following 7 items on the agenda for the next meeting:

  1. Issue a $200 million bond that is backed by raising taxes
  2. Road diets where the city reduces traffic lanes
  3. Mitigation of meat consumption
  4. Implementation of facial recognition technology
  5. Solidifying the 15-minute city framework
  6. Recommitting to red light surveillance cameras
  7. Reducing parking around the city with the goal to get people to stop driving less

A person from the public is limited to speak on only 5 of those 7 items. Furthermore, that person cannot sign up to give public comment, which is protected in city code. Not only does this regulation restrict content from being brought forth by the public, but it also inhibits the ability of the people to petition their elected officials to let them know which way the people desire them to vote on specific policies.

Petitioning the government is protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article 2, Section 5 of the Arizona Constitution. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting the right of the people to petition the Government.” The Arizona Constitution also states, “The right of petition, and of the people peaceably to assemble for the common good, shall never be abridged.” Restricting people’s right to petition their elected officials is a direct infringement on both constitutions.

Not only is petitioning the government protected, but content is also protected. The Arizona Attorney General states, “Public bodies may impose reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on speakers, but any content-based restrictions must be narrowly tailored to effectuate a compelling state interest.” The Arizona Ombudsman Guidance further solidifies the opinion from the Attorney General. When discussing what could be a compelling state interest in court of law, the Military Leadership Diversity Commission of the United States Department of Defense states, “Only important, specific goals may satisfy this level of judicial scrutiny.”

As stated at the beginning of this article, the loyalty oath is swearing to protect and uphold both the U.S. and Arizona Constitutions. Because Mayor Kate has won multiple elections, she has sworn multiple times to the loyalty oath. If the oath is found to be violated, the maximum penalty is a class 4 felony and removal from office.

For public bodies and elected officials like those at the City of Phoenix to avoid possibly breaking the law, the Arizona Attorney General says, “The best practice is to decide [public comment changes] in advance [of the meeting] so that speakers have prior notice about the restrictions that the public body has set. In this way, the public body may be able to prevent allegations that it either treated speakers differently or used content-based restrictions.” Mayor Kate’s public comment limitation was not published, not written down, and staff has no idea where it came from other than her mouth.

While we have covered the possible content and petition limitations from the Mayor, another interesting issue stemming from the Attorney General’s recommendations is the potential targeting of specific voters. Since Mayor Kate’s regulation is not written down, it appears the Mayor decided to implement this policy after the June 28 Phoenix meeting. At this meeting, members of the public and Mayor Kate’s 2020 opponent showed up to speak against the Phoenix water rate hikes, water allotment reduction, and mismanagement of funds. It was at the next meeting, after summer break, that the public discovered the 5-agenda-item limitation. It looks like Mayor Kate may be targeting specific speakers and is treating members of the public differently.

Instead of allowing folks to freely express themselves, people like Kate Gallego will do anything to silence anyone in the mission to obtain all the power and control they possibly can. They are tyrants that use their power to implement radical policies and agendas to control others.

Keep in mind, the Mayor is a corporate globalist, Vice-Chair of the Steering Committee for C40 Cities, member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders, Chair of Maricopa County Association of Governments, Co-Chair of 50 Liter Homes, Vice-Chair of Climate Mayors, part of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, on the Arizona Advisory Committee for the US Global Leadership Coalition, has launched Phoenix Global Rising with ASU, speaks at the United Nations, and brags about the globalist policies she has led and implemented in the City of Phoenix. The cold hard truth is the people from the WEF and other globalist organizations think they know better and are better than everyone else. They do not want to hear from voters or for voters to properly inform them. They believe they rule everything that moves or breathes.

Limiting the number of items someone can speak on is way outside the bounds of Phoenix City Code, Phoenix’s public comment guidelines, the Attorney General’s opinion, Arizona state law, Ombudsman Guidance, the Arizona Constitution, and the U.S. Constitution. The Mayor of Phoenix crossed the line with her latest shenanigans by suppressing the voters of Phoenix, and in doing so, denied the city council members from considering their constituents’ views before voting. Kate Gallego has completely disgraced the sanctity of the institution and democracy. This public comment regulation is a violation of the bedrock of our Republic – consent of the governed. By limiting public comment content from her constituents, Mayor Kate exposes her true self. Her policy restricting free speech needs to be abolished.

Further, Arizona state law says, “A member of the public body may not knowingly direct a staff member to communicate in violation of [open meeting law].”

Elected officials and city staff work for us, not the globalist organizations. It’s why they swear an oath to protect and uphold the State and U.S. Constitutions. By restricting the ability to address officials through public comment, Mayor Kate is preventing the people from having the last say to stop bad policies. The Arizona State Legislature needs to take this up, review the open meeting laws, and codify public comment as a guaranteed First Amendment right to guarantee the public can petition their elected officials. In the meantime, we’ll see what happens at the next Phoenix City Council Meeting on November 1.

Jeff Caldwell currently helps with operations at EZAZ.org. He is also a Precinct Captain, State Committeeman, and Precinct Committeeman in Legislative District 2. Jeff is a huge baseball fan who enjoys camping and exploring new, tasty restaurants! You can follow him on X here.

Phoenix Mayor Leading Globalist Effort To Ban Meat, Dairy, And Private Cars By 2030

Phoenix Mayor Leading Globalist Effort To Ban Meat, Dairy, And Private Cars By 2030

By Corinne Murdock |  

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego is at the forefront of a globalist effort to ban meat, dairy, and private cars by 2030.   

Gallego sits on the steering committee of C40 Cities: the globalist climate coalition of over 100 cities globally planning and coordinating a centralized system controlling consumer consumption. She is the only American on the 13-member steering committee, and was elected as its vice chair in 2021.

C40 Cities first announced their consumption reduction plan in 2019, a year before Gallego had Phoenix join C40 Cities. The coalition declared that consumption in high-income cities needed to be reduced by two-thirds to avert a climate crisis. The prediction was based on a research report connecting consumption and emissions, “The Future of Urban Consumption in a 1.5 C World,” produced by C40 Cities, Arup, and the University of Leeds.  

The report established these “ambitious target(s)” for influencing global supply chains to control consumption by 2030, dubbed “consumption interventions”: eliminating all meat and dairy consumption; eliminating all household food waste; slashing supply chain food waste by 75 percent; getting rid of all cars; requiring a 50-year lifetime for vehicles; 50 percent reduction in use of metal and plastic materials in vehicles; limiting people to three new clothing pieces annually; restricting flights to one per person every three years; achieving 100 percent sustainable (or low carbon) aviation fuel; reducing steel and cement use in buildings by 35 percent and 56 percent respectively; reducing new building demands by 20 percent; building 90 percent of residential and 70 percent of commercial buildings with timber; replacing 61 percent of cement with low-carbon alternatives; reducing virgin metal and petrochemical-based materials by 22 percent; and requiring a seven-year optimum lifetime of laptops and other electronic devices.

READ THE REPORT

The report also offered “progressive target(s)” that scaled back the ambitious targets.  

It appears Gallego has committed to implementing the consumption control plan proposals, as well as the greater missions of C40 Cities. The same year that the coalition named Gallego to its steering committee, Phoenix approved an updated Climate Action Plan reflecting the C40 Cities’ goal of a 50 percent emissions reduction by 2030 and zero emissions by 2050. Among the city’s Office of Environmental Programs initiatives, Gallego’s administration is rolling out a food waste and composting program, the Reinventing Cities initiative to decarbonize infrastructure, and electrification of its government vehicles.  

The C40 Cities report noted that food served as the biggest sources of urban consumption-based emissions (13 percent), with animal-based foods representing 75 percent of that total compared to plant-based foods’ 25 percent. Elsewhere, C40 Cities cited the Planetary Health Diet as a model, which reflects their report’s progressive target of limiting meat intake to 35 pounds annually (just over half of a pound a week, or about 1.5 ounces daily).

The coalition hailed the Planetary Health Diet as part of “The Great Food Transformation,” advocated for by the EAT/Lancet Commission. The EAT Initiative is a project of the Stockholm Resilience Center, Professor Johan Rockstrom, and Wellcome Trust (one of the key funders of C40 Cities) under the Strawberry Foundation (formerly the Stordalen Foundation) to transform the world’s food system to XYZZ. Their partners include Nestle, World Resources Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of College London, Harvard Global Equity Initiative and T.H. Chan School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley Food Institute, and New York Academy of Sciences.

EAT leadership consists of nearly 60 individuals with professional ties to the mainstream media outlets, publications, and technology companies including Forbes, the Lancet, and Google; progressive globalist organizations including the World Health Organization (WHO), World Economic Forum (WEF), United Nations (UN); the highest levels of domestic and foreign governance, including the Obamas and Clintons, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), United Arab Emirates, China, Norway, Italy, and Sweden; major universities including Tufts University and University of Miami, as well as those listed above; and a slew of nonprofits and organizations with leftist billionaire support.  

In 2020, the United Nations (UN) tasked EAT with “a wide mandate to build a broad, multistakeholder [sic] coalition” to move people into “sustainable consumption patterns.”  

The report also proposed limiting people to an average of 2,500 calories daily, and reducing household food waste by 50 percent through government publicity campaigns and regulations on food retailers.

In March, C40 Cities published a renewed commitment to their consumption control plan. Although the coalition insisted that the report represented an analysis rather than plan, C40 Cities leadership has characterized the report as a blueprint of sorts for achieving a halving of emissions by 2030, as noted by The Expose.  

Similar to EAT, C40 Cities leveraged the COVID-19 pandemic to implement 15-minute cities, within four months of the U.S. pandemic emergency declaration. The coalition championed the same slogan used by President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and other progressive globalist leaders: “Build Back Better.” 

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, was one of the first to implement 15-minute cities in 2020; she was elected the C40 Cities steering committee vice chair last month. Under Gallego, Phoenix is undergoing changes to reorient itself as a 15-minute city through policy changes as outlined in Vision Zero and ordinances like the parking space reduction for apartments.   

Citing C40 Cities, Gallego has also been installing “cool pavement” throughout Phoenix which, contrary to the implications of its name, makes people hotter rather than cooler.   

C40 launched in 2005 as “C20” under London, England’s then-Mayor Ken Livingstone. In 2006, C20 merged with former President Bill Clinton’s Climate Initiative to form C40 Cities. The Clinton Foundation remains one of C40 Cities’ key partners.

In 2007, New York’s then-mayor, Michael Bloomberg, joined C40 Cities and hosted the coalition’s second annual conference. Bloomberg remains one of the highest funders for C40 Cities, along with Oak Foundation, ClimateWorks Foundation, Google, the Wellcome Fund, the European Climate Foundation, and George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.  

In 2015, then-President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden issued a call to action for cities to join C40’s Compact of Mayors. In April, the Biden administration gave $1 million to C40 Cities to address “climate migration” in Latin American cities; that same week, the president signed an executive order to prioritize environmental justice in federal agencies, with a C40 Cities representative there to witness. 

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.

Gov. Hobbs Joins Climate Alliance Advancing Paris Agreement, Green New Deal

Gov. Hobbs Joins Climate Alliance Advancing Paris Agreement, Green New Deal

By Corinne Murdock |

Last Tuesday, Gov. Katie Hobbs announced that she signed the state onto the U.S. Climate Alliance: a Democrat-led initiative advancing the progressive energy reforms within the Paris Agreement and the Green New Deal. 

Hobbs characterized the alliance — a project of the private nonprofit United Nations Foundation — as bipartisan. The only state in the alliance with a Republican governor is Vermont.

According to their 2021 tax filing, the United Nations Foundation pulled in $86.7 million according to ProPublica, with over $281 million the previous year. It spent nearly $23.1 million on climate initiatives in that 2021 filing, and around $25.2 million in the 2020 filling. 

The alliance was founded in 2017 by the governors of California, New York, and Washington after the Trump administration withdrew from the Paris Agreement. California raised the initial funds to kickstart the alliance.

The current executive committee, elected in May, consists of all Democrats: Govs. Gavin Newsom (California), Janet Mills (Maine), Michelle Lujan Grisham (New Mexico), Kathy Hochul (New York), and Jay Inslee (Washington). 

Other Democrat-led states in the alliance are Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.

The territories of Guam and Puerto Rico are also in the alliance.

Express goals of the alliance concern fulfillment of the U.S. pledge to the Paris Agreement and proposals outlined by the Green New Deal. The alliance was behind recent joint efforts with the White House to decarbonize government buildings and purchase of low-carbon, American-made construction materials. In February, the alliance convened in Washington, D.C. to deliver 21 specific federal climate actions to accomplish a “net-zero future” — aka, zero carbon.

A zero carbon future includes replacement of coal, gas, and oil-based power sources with total electrification. The World Economic Forum (WEF), a globalist activist organization, defined a net zero carbon future as including decarbonized buildings, wind and solar energy reliance, and electric vehicles.

Collectively, alliance goals include reducing collective greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 26-28 percent by 2025, 50-52 percent by 2030, and 100 percent by 2050; centering equity, environmental justice, and a “just economic transition” in all initiatives; and building a globalist accountability network between states and “the global community.” 

California leads on all fronts except one: statewide building performance standards for efficiency. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary form of GHG. The secondary GHGs are methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and the industrial gasses: hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3).

Alliance staff hail from a variety of high-profile progressive backgrounds within state or federal government, or climate advocacy organizations.

Casey Katims, the executive director, formerly worked as the deputy associate administrator for intergovernmental relations at the EPA, director of federal and inter-state affairs for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, senior legislative assistant for Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene, and executive assistant for Inslee when he was a congressman. 

Taryn Finnessey, managing director, formerly worked as the senior climate change specialist for Colorado and water policy analyst for Western Resource Advocates.

Andrew Sand, the policy director and formerly the senior policy advisor, formerly worked as the deputy director, assistant director, legislative liaison, and policy advisor for the Colorado Energy Office; chaired the Colorado New Energy Improvement District’s board of directors; served as chief of staff for former Colorado Sen. Gail Schwartz.

Marwa Kamel, senior policy advisor, also works as a freelance climate consultant; she formerly worked as a policy advisor to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and a consultant for the World Bank.

Mark Teschauer, senior policy advisor, formerly worked as a senior consultant for the WSP environmental consulting firm and program manager for the American Public Transportation Association.

Kareem Hammoud, senior policy analyst, formerly worked sporadically as a Yale University teaching fellow and research assistant, contractor with the Rocky Mountain Institute, and analyst for Parnassus Investments.

Kristin Igusky, programs and analysis director, formerly worked as an associate for the World Resources Institute and climate change analyst for SAIC. 

Evan Westrup, communications director and founder of Sempervirent Strategies consulting firm, formerly worked as a fellow for the German Marshall Fund, press secretary and communications director for former California Gov. Jerry Brown, and deputy press secretary for the California Department of Justice. Last year it was reported that Westrup’s consulting firm would receive $10,000 a month from a committee formed by his former boss, Brown, using the millions in leftover campaign funds. Westrup formed the firm nine months after Brown termed out, according to his LinkedIn profile; the California secretary of state’s office reflects an LLC registration for his firm occurring in January 2021. 

Nikki Burnett, senior communications associate, formerly worked as a communications officer for C40 Cities, communications fellow for the Pacific Council on International Policy, and associate with CLS Strategies. That last company is known for its manipulation and influence of foreign politics using a coordinated network of fake social media profiles and pages.

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.