Rebecca Tarbotton, the Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network, is what you would call a “well-rounded” rabble-rouser. She’s been using the power of bottom-up organizing to make real change throughout her whole career. She started off as an environmental researcher working among indigenous communities in Canada, then spent eight years working in India, where she supported traditional food and farming practices and helped a women’s farming alliance grow from seven to 4,000  members. Her mind still on agriculture, she advocated for the new local food movement in the UK and then fought the genetically-modified crop invasion in California. At RAN, she’s helped show how the environment and the economy are inextricably linked. By pressuring the companies that fund environmental destruction, she’s helped create policies that change the way corporations do business in America. If you’re not inspired already, read on.

TILE: How did you first get started in environmental activism?
Rebecca: I always knew that I wanted to make change in the world, but I started out my career working in human rights and development abroad. While I was working in India organizing with woman farmers, I realized what an impact corporations have on people and ecosystems around the world, and how profoundly important it is to give local people a say in the decisions that effect their lives and livelihoods. That realization eventually brought me to Rainforest Action Network, where we focus on moving corporations toward better environmental and human rights practices.

TILE: What is the most pressing issue that Rainforest Action Network is working on?
Rebecca: RAN believes firmly that local, community driven solutions are the only way to save the planet. That’s why we’re working with communities around the globe to keep forests standing, fossil fuels in the ground and stop climate change.

TILE: What is the biggest challenge you face in your work?
Rebecca: The tension between building targeted, strategic campaigns that can make change, and building lifelong activists and a movement that’s inclusive and incorporates people from all areas of society. While both of these are important goals, they require very different strategies and resources. RAN historically has straddled these two goals very well, and we’re always looking for ways to improve the way we work.

TILE: What’s the best advice you would give to your teenage self?
Rebecca: Don’t worry too much about what’s you’re going to be, worry about what you’re going to do. It’s easy to get caught up in thinking too much about “career” and what you want your profession to be. It’s more important to connect with your passion and your motivations which will lead you to work that you want to do in a sustainable way.

TILE: How do you think young people can play an important role in the changing landscape of philanthropy?
Rebecca: Find causes that you believe in and get involved. Don’t use philanthropy as an alternative to action. Do both. Philanthropy is action – but your philanthropy will be more meaningful if you’re engaged in the work in the world.

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