Before Cassie Rauser was CEO of TreePeople, one of the oldest and largest environmental organizations in Los Angeles, she was a young girl from a 40-person town in North Dakota who loved being outside. After years of exploring and dedicating herself to protection of the environment — from Minnesota and Arizona to Costa Rica and California — she was named TreePeople’s new CEO in September after a two-year-long search by the organization.
The Oracle sat down with Rauser to ask her about her journey and goals.
How did you first get interested in environmentalism?
Cassie Rauser [CR]: I’m from North Dakota, and I grew up in a very rural area, always very connected to nature and the world in that way. But I would say environmentalism — as an advocate — is not something that I became aware of as something to do or engage in until I went to college. As a freshman in college, I actually joined the Minnesota PIRG, so the Public Interest Research Group … the PIRGs are an advocacy group for a broad swath of social and environmental issues … for the public interest … I quickly became exposed to and engaged in a number of environmental things that were going on at the time, including the siting of nuclear waste on Native American land.
That was one of the first advocacy roles I ever played in protesting and writing to elected officials and whatnot. I found that I had a much greater affinity to that environmental aspect, and especially the environmental aspect that included that social component as well. So through that, I actually totally shifted gears and changed my major: I was pre-law, and then I was taking environmental chemistry, environmental physics, and again, this is 30 years ago, so environmental studies was very new, universities didn’t have these types of majors, but I was at a liberal arts school in St. Paul, Minnesota, and they did … Ultimately, I selected biology and political science because I really liked that intersection … So that was sort of the beginning.
I’m from a town of 40 people. I’m the first to go to college in my family. So there was very little understanding or exposure — almost no exposure — to this type of work. Being a scientist was way outside of the scope of what anyone did where I grew up … so I really had no role model with regard to this being a career path, but I certainly had a connection to the earth. I did live among farmers, and all I did growing up was just play outside on the riverbank, running through the river, building things out of tree branches. I felt like it was a great time growing up. I also felt a little bit like, ‘I don’t think I quite fit in here.’ So I went to college in the city and never looked back.
What was the process of being chosen to be TreePeople’s new CEO?
[CR]: I’ve been working in Los Angeles on climate, sustainability, environmental issues broadly for about 12 years now, and when the search opened two years ago, I saw it, and I knew that it was open, but I didn’t apply. Their past CEO had passed away. I think they went through some internal evolution and restructuring to be ready to bring on a new CEO. I did a lot of fire recovery work in the last year. I was working as a consultant the last two years before I started at TreePeople … But when this was open again, I again didn’t apply. I really enjoyed the work I was doing. I was working on the mayor’s climate plan. I was doing fire recovery work and a lot of other interesting things as a consultant, and so it was a recruitment process.
The nice thing about more senior positions is they’re often run by recruiters, which is really, often, a much easier and pleasant experience in that they work to service that liaison and really help to find the right match … for the applicant and the organization. So the recruiters reached out to me, and I was like, ‘I’m not really looking. I really like what I’m doing.’ … But these are certainly things I did not know about as someone coming up and of age in the environmental movement. A lot of what’s possible, what kind of different jobs can you do, how do you prepare yourself for them? And then how does that even work to become the CEO of the largest environmental nonprofit in LA? Which I can’t believe. I still feel magical, and I can’t believe I get to do this.
What are some of your goals for your time at TreePeople?
[CR]: TreePeople has evolved — they’ve only had two leaders, right? So they had the founder who was there for about 40 years … Andy really established a phenomenal legacy and reputation, and the impact and the reach in the region is so respectable, and I don’t think duplicated by any other organization, right? It’s so impressive that anyone I talked to about TreePeople — almost everyone has a story: ‘oh my gosh, I love TreePeople.’…Everyone has a TreePeople story.
To be connected to something that’s so meaningful to the communities around here is phenomenal. And then Cindy was the next CEO, and she really saw an opportunity and had a passion to take the work and apply it to communities that needed it most. So for about six to eight years, there was a huge intention of focusing on what became known internally within TreePeople as bright spots, so those were communities that have historically been disinvested and have the lowest tree canopy compared to others … a lot was expanded into the space of of school greening … so it was really a big time of growth, but also intentionality around ensuring that tree canopy and outdoor access was equitable.
For me, coming in as a biologist who’s had a big mix of experiences, but also as someone who’s worked really broadly throughout LA in sustainability and climate issues … I want to sort of marry the historical two approaches. I feel like it’s a lot of “yes, and.” I think, of course, the intention of investing and supporting our bright spots is something that we will continue to do. I think also bringing it back to some of the communities that we had originally engaged in the early years of TreePeople is a “yes, and.” I don’t think this is an “either-or.”
I’m especially thinking of communities that were impacted by the wildfires a year ago. It’s an opportunity right now to think about recovering the tree canopy, to think about and reimagine what the role that green space in the community serves and what it serves for fire resiliency. So the right plant, right place, idea and the way that the right native plant contributes to not just fire recovery, but fire resiliency as we think about moving forward and doing this differently, so it doesn’t happen like this again.
Really elevating our partnerships and forming new partnerships throughout the region with folks who have values aligned with us. Also thinking about, planting trees is at our core, but building out from there, what does that look like with regard to the way we connect in community, connect into impact? And thinking about the full spectrum of benefits that it has. It’s not just what needs are we meeting today? It provides shade. It provides cooling. It increases energy efficiency and often reduces energy costs. It helps the soil retain and filter more water. It’s helping with our watershed health, helping with our groundwater, ultimately underneath it all. If done in the right way and in a mindful way, it contributes to our urban ecosystem and to biodiversity.
This whole idea for me is, sometimes we forget about the real multiple impacts and ways people can connect to trees and can connect to nature, but this is about, for me, creating space where people and nature thrive together.
