Michael

peñuelas

Michael

Peñuelas

Policy Analyst

Community Organizer

Strategic Communicator

Michael is a policy analyst, community organizer, and strategic communicator based in NW Washington. Recently, he's focused his energy on electing leaders up and down the ballot who will make progress toward food and energy systems that are secure, sovereign, and resilient. Despite running away briefly to California, he's PNW to the bone. Michael holds a M.S. in Environmental Policy and Management and a B.S. in Earth System Science, with Honors, both from Stanford University. He currently sits on the board of the Riveters Collective, the Campaign Committee of the Whatcom Democrats, and is a proud member of the Bellingham Tenants Union.

Clean and

Prosperous

America PAC

&

political

research

manager

Michael is currently

Regional

Campaign

Director

for WA State House

Democratic Campaign

Committee (HDCC)

01 consulting

POLITICAL CONSULTING

Beginning in May of 2018, Michael began adapting his experience with grassroots campaigning to the project of candidate campaigns. He specializes in supporting strong progressives in swing and safe red districts, under the theory that we must contest disproportionate corporate power wherever it holds.

He provides full-service campaign services 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.

PROJECT + ACADEMIC CONSULTING

Michael has lived on the West Coast of the US for 25 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 have 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

Click to read michael's published writing

March 2020 - Present

WA State House Democratic Campaign Committee (HDCC)

Regional Campaigns Director, Northwest Washington

May 2018 - August 2018

People to Elect Tim Ballew II

Field Campaign Manager

Published: June 2018

"Nourished Planet: Sustainability in the Global Food System"

Co-Author

June 2017 - December 2017

Uprising Seeds

Production and Operations Intern

Sept 2017 - May 2018

Food Tank: The Think Tank for Food

Research and Writing Fellow

May 2017- January 2019

Project Consultant

Independent Project Consultant

2015

The Markets Institute at World Wildlife Fund - US

Research and Strategy Intern, and

Volpert Scholar in Interdisciplinary Environmental Science

2013 - June 2016

Fossil Free Stanford

Campaign Director for Media and Communications, and Co-Founder

August 2018 - November 2018

Whatcom Democrats

Field Director

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December 2018 - March 2020

Representative Sharon

Shewmake (D-Bellingham)

Legislative Assistant

Get in touch.