Staff

Megan DeSmedt State Director (215) 732-3747

Background

Megan is the State Director of PennPIRG, and is responsible for program development, research, and advocacy.  Prior to joining PennPIRG, she worked as the Campus Organizing Director for MASSPIRG Student Chapters, working full-time with students and staff across the state to run campaigns around global warming, hunger and homelessness, affordable higher education, and civic engagement. Last year, she worked successfully with students in Massachusetts to pass the Global Warming Solutions Act, which is one of the strongest global warming laws in the country.  Under her leadership, the program raised thousands of dollars for the hungry and homeless, registered over 20,000 young voters, and helped convince the governor of Massachusetts to develop a plan to cut the state's global warming pollution.

She started her organizing career in 2000, working with Ohio PIRG as a campus organizer at Oberlin College, and later worked with ecopledge.com, a corporate accountability campaign that focuses on getting companies to make significant changes in their environmental practices. She also helped organize ECOnference in the fall of 2001, a national student environmental conference held in Washington, DC, with over 2,000 students in attendance. In November of 2001, Megan moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she worked with students on the New Voters Project, registering, educating, and mobilizing thousands of students to get out and vote on Election Day. She grew up in Marlton, New Jersey, and graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia with a degree in Environmental Geology in 2000.  Currently, Megan lives in Philadelphia.