Michael

peñuelas

Michael

Peñuelas

political strategist
professional communicator

senior associate

Michael is a strategist known for his level head who has worked and won campaigns of all shapes and sizes. He takes huge pride in serving as a guide for inspired leaders stepping up to serve their communities.

Michael holds a M.S. in Environmental Policy and Management and a B.S. in Earth System Science, with Honors, both from Stanford University. Michael currently sits on the Board of the Riveters Collective and Riveters Collective PAC as well as the Whatcom Democrats Campaign Committee.

published writing

with Blue Spruce Strategies, LLC

01 consulting

POLITICAL CONSULTING

Michael found his way to electoral work in 2018, when he began to realize just how powerful local elected leaders can be. Since then, he's worked and won campaigns of all shapes and sizes, including for the Washington State legislature; county councils; city councils; mayors in cities of all sizes; a city attorney; a port commission; and other local jurisdictions.

Michael takes huge pride in serving as a guide for inspired leaders stepping up to serve their communities. He provides full-service general campaign assistance for candidates, including staff hiring, training, and management; voter targeting; messaging; and basic graphic design services. He is also available to consult on independent expenditure campaigns, grassroots campaigns, and other political prokects.

PROJECT + ACADEMIC CONSULTING

Michael has lived on the West Coast of the US for 28 years, surrounded by the boldest innovators on the planet. As a millennial, he brings a unique capacity for pattern-recognition and trend-spotting to the business of project consulting and research. Click on any image below for a brief project description.

In 2017-18, his clients included Sightline Institute, the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition, and MASH Strategy Studio. In 2015-16, he conducted his first four projects as a Student Consultant with the Stanford Global Projects Center (GPC) and the Stanford Community Engaged Learning Program (CELP).

01/2018

2018

08/2017

I was contracted by the Food and Markets team at the World Wildlife Fund US (WWF-US) to guide a peer review process for a report I had produced while previously employed at The Markets Institute. The report had been produced for a grant-review process of The MacArthur Foundation, and estimated the total GHG reductions by 2020 and 2050 of actions along more than a dozen of the WWF-US Markets Team's major work-streams. I guided the report through a peer review process by two independent teams, one comprised of academics at Stanford University and one based out of the Rocky Mountain Institute. The conclusion, according to Jason Clay, WWF's SVP of Food and Markets: I "nailed the calculations."

As a Student Consultant working in collaboration with team members from Grassroots Ecology (formerly Acterra) and the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Land Trust, I engaged in an independent research project to produce an improved set of Best Management Practices (BMPs) for preserving and promoting food-relevant native plant species during prescribed burns.

In partnership with Healthy Watersheds California, a project of the Pacific Forest Trust, I worked as a Student Consultant with three other graduate students to produce models of optimal institutional structures for project financing of a $1 billion USD effort to incorporate forest management into water governance systems. The report was produced for a course titled "Global Project Finance," taught by Michael Bennon, Managing Director of the Stanford Global Projects Center.

In partnership with The WILD Foundation, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, and The Natural Capital Project, I produced an intensive GIS analysis with a team of two other Student Consultants. We reported to Daniela Uribe at the WILD Foundation, Brad Eighelberger at the Natural Capital Project, and Shardul Bajikar at Sanjay Gandhi NP.

In partnership with The WILD Foundation, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, and The Natural Capital Project, I produced an intensive GIS analysis with a team of two other Student Consultants. We reported to Daniela Uribe at the WILD Foundation, Brad Eighelberger at the Natural Capital Project, and Shardul Bajikar at Sanjay Gandhi NP.

In partnership with The WILD Foundation, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, and The Natural Capital Project, I produced an intensive GIS analysis with a team of two other Student Consultants. We reported to Daniela Uribe at the WILD Foundation, Brad Eighelberger at the Natural Capital Project, and Shardul Bajikar at Sanjay Gandhi NP.

As an Undergraduate Researcher with the Stanford Center for Conservation Biology and the Organization for Tropical Studies, I spent most of my undergrad involved in a number of research and analysis projects of significant scope. I managed a field ecology team in Central America for a project titled, "The countryside biogeography and ecosystem service function of scavenger communities in agricultural landscapes" in 2014.

As a Student Consultant working in collaboration with team members from Grassroots Ecology (formerly Acterra) and the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Land Trust, I engaged in an independent research project to produce an improved set of Best Management Practices (BMPs) for preserving and promoting food-relevant native plant species during prescribed burns.

I was contracted by the Food and Markets team at the World Wildlife Fund US (WWF-US) to guide a peer review process for a report I had produced while previously employed at The Markets Institute. The report had been produced for a grant-review process of The MacArthur Foundation, and estimated the total GHG reductions by 2020 and 2050 of actions along more than a dozen of the WWF-US Markets Team's major work-streams. I guided the report through a peer review process by two independent teams, one comprised of academics at Stanford University and one based out of the Rocky Mountain Institute. The conclusion, according to Jason Clay, WWF's SVP of Food and Markets: I "nailed the calculations."

02 Story

January 2022 - Present

Blue Spruce
Strategies, LLC

Senior Associate

Jan 2021 - Dec 2022

Prism West
Consulting Group

Senior Associate

(following 4 months as an Associate)

March 2020 - December 2020

WA State House Democratic Campaign Committee (HDCC)

Regional Campaigns Director, Northwest Washington

August 2018 - November 2018

Whatcom Democrats

Campaign Director

92333F1D-8337-4BE6-89C4-E30E5092AE2E_1_1

December 2018 - March 2020

Representative
Sharon
Shewmake

Legislative Assistant

(following 1 year as an Associate Legislative Assistant)

Sept 2017 - May 2018

Food Tank:
The Think Tank for Food

Research and Writing Fellow

May 2018 - August 2018

People to Elect
Tim Ballew II

Field Campaign Manager

2015

The Markets Institute at
World Wildlife Fund

Research and Strategy Intern, and

Volpert Scholar in Interdisciplinary Environmental Science

June 2017 - December 2017

Uprising Seeds

Production and

Operations Intern

2013 - June 2016

Fossil Free Stanford

Co-Founder and

Campaign Director

for Media and

Communications

Get in touch.

michaelpenuelas(at)gmail.com