BERKELEY (August 18, 2011)—Adrienne Alvord joined the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) earlier this week as the organization’s California and Western states director. She left her post as environmental policy director for State Sen. Fran Pavley to take the job. She will work out of UCS’s Berkeley office.

“Adrienne has a wealth of policy and business expertise and will build on our successes developing and advocating effective, science-based climate and energy solutions,” said UCS Executive Director Kathleen Rest. “We are delighted to have her leading our efforts in the Golden State and the rest of the American West.”

Alvord has been involved in state and federal environmental policy in the private, non-profit and government sectors since the early 1990s. Over the last two decades, she helped craft policy and legislation on a range of issues, including climate change, transportation, alternative energy and fuels, waste, agriculture, land use, and water. Climate change has long been one of her primary interests. From 2004 to 2006, she worked with then-Assembly Member Pavley to draft and negotiate AB 32, the state’s path-breaking climate legislation.

Alvord is excited about her new job. “For many years I have been very impressed with the quality, effectiveness and professionalism of the Union of Concerned Scientists,” she said. “In particular, the research and advocacy that UCS has brought to bear in California on climate and clean transportation policy has been crucial to the success of passing and implementing AB 32 and AB 1493, the two California landmark climate bills of the last decade.”

The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading U.S. science-based nonprofit organization working for a healthy environment and a safer world. Founded in 1969, UCS is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and also has offices in Berkeley, Chicago and Washington, D.C.