Beyond Plastics Announces New Director to Tackle Plastic Pollution in Southern California
Susan Keefe to Lead Grassroots Advocacy and Policy Efforts in
Los Angeles County, Orange County, and San Diego County
For Immediate Release: January 30, 2025
Contact:
Melissa Valliant, Beyond Plastics — melissavalliant@bennington.edu, (410) 829-0726
Susan Keefe, Beyond Plastics — susankeefe@bennington.edu, (510) 282-5964
Judith Enck, Beyond Plastics — judithenck@bennington.edu, (518) 605-1770
Beyond Plastics, a nationwide nonprofit fighting plastic pollution, announced that Susan Keefe joined the organization as its first-ever Southern California director. Keefe will be using her 30-plus years of leadership experience and dedication to activism to grow Beyond Plastics’ presence in Southern California, particularly Los Angeles County, Orange County, and San Diego County.
"We cannot create a sustainable future alone. We have to join forces, organize, and speak up to change the things we cannot accept. With that in mind, I’m thrilled to be working alongside Beyond Plastics to leverage its deep policy expertise and advocacy efforts focused on harmful plastic,” said Beyond Plastics Southern California director Susan Keefe. “We will work together to reduce the ubiquitous reliance on single-use plastic and plastic pollution in my state of California."
Keefe brings three decades of leadership experience working in the private sector, most notably with enterprise software company Oracle Corp. Since leaving Oracle in 2022, she has actively worked alongside nonprofits such as The Last Beach Cleanup, Climate Action Campaign, Climate Reality Project, and Surfrider to advocate for change, call out plastic polluters, and organize against plastic pollution. This includes exposing corporate greenwashing. In December 2024, she was included in a nationwide CBS exposé of Starbucks' custom recycling bins. The story, which discovered that the majority of the plastic in these bins was not recycled, ran in 18 media markets across the country.
“There’s so much more California can do to reduce the production and use of unnecessary plastic. Susan has the tenacity and wisdom to strengthen that movement, and we are thrilled to welcome her to our team of experts,” said Beyond Plastics president and former EPA regional administrator Judith Enck. “Grassroots advocacy is key to driving policy change on the local level, and it’s more important than ever in our current political environment. We’re excited to make waves in Southern California with Susan at the helm.”
Keefe is a leader in the California Green Business Network and founded her own consulting company, Eco Forward, to promote plastic-free, healthier alternatives to communities, cities, and businesses in Southern California.
Originally from Toms River, New Jersey, Keefe attended Widener University in Pennsylvania and lives in California’s Orange County with her husband and son.
About Beyond Plastics
Launched in 2019, Beyond Plastics is a nationwide project that pairs the wisdom and experience of environmental policy experts with the energy and creativity of grassroots advocates to build a vibrant and effective movement to end plastic pollution and promote alternatives to plastics. Using deep policy and advocacy expertise, Beyond Plastics is building a well-informed, effective movement seeking to achieve the institutional, economic, and societal changes needed to save our planet and ourselves, from the negative health, climate, and environmental impacts for the production, usage, and disposal of plastics.
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