Hop Hopkins

Hop Hopkins has been organizing for over twenty-five years at the intersections of race, class, gender, and the environment. Before serving as Executive Director at WildEarth Guardians, Hop led organizational transformation at the Sierra Club, worked with LA River Keepers, and helped start an outdoor education school for children. He is a social movement strategist and scholar and has been a leader in movements from HIV/AIDS to anti-globalization, food sovereignty, anti-displacement, and clean energy transition. He began his career as a grassroots environmental justice community organizer in Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles. Born in Dallas, Texas, Hop received his bachelor’s degree from New College of California as a graduate in the Culture, Ecology, and Sustainable Communities program with a focus on natural building.

He has earned a certificate of completion from the Leadership, Organizing and Action Program at Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Executive Education, and a certificate in the Art of Leadership at the Rockwood Leadership Institute.

He earned his Master’s Degree in Urban Sustainability at Antioch University, Los Angeles, where he also served as a Climate Justice Fellow and adjunct professor. He sits on the Los Angeles Food Policy Council’s Leadership Circle, is a Board Trustee at the Midland School, and has served on the boards of the Community Coalition for Environmental Justice, Western States Center, and People’s College of Law.

Hop was a certified arborist, has earned a Permaculture Design Certificate, is a master gardener, and was certified as a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) trainer. He and his wife of twenty years homeschool their daughters on an urban homestead inhabited by their pet Australian Cattle Dogs, chickens, honey bees, fruit trees, and multiple compost piles.