Russell Greene is a poet, singer/songwriter, political strategist, climate campaigner and legislative lobbyist. Over a 32-year career at the Cheesecake Factory Restaurants he rose from the position of server to Executive Vice President of Operations Services and Sustainability.  In 2016, he left the company to bring his full attention to the climate emergency.

As part of this effort, Russell worked on the Bernie Sanders Presidential campaign, spearheading the social media efforts, Climate Decision 2016 and Climate Charge 2020 where focused on electing Senator Sanders and shifting the climatenarrative from “climate change” to “climate emergency.” As a delegate to the 2016 Democratic Convention, Russell was appointed to the Democratic Party Platform Committee, where he successfully amended the 2016 Democratic Party platform, putting the party on record calling for a World War II-scale climate emergency mobilization. This helped lay the foundation for the first ever congressional climate emergency resolution introduced in the 116th Congress, and for the bicameral Climate Emergency Act introduced in the 117th Congress. Greene worked closely with the offices of Sen. Sanders, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to help draft, and recruit congressional co-sponsors for, both pieces of legislation.

Russell served terms in the California Democratic Party (CDP) as an elected and appointed delegate, and an elected member of the party’s Executive Board. He also served successive terms as Vice Chair of Legislation for the CDP’s Environmental Caucus. From 2007-2023 Greeneworked as Senior Adviser of Strategy and Climate Policy for The Progressive Democrats of America. He was a Co-Founder and Senior Adviser to the Justice Action Mobilization Network (JAMN), where in partnership with the Hip Hop Caucus and NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts, he conceived and co-produced a groundbreaking art-centered Climate Action Conference. He also played an active role as Advisory Board Chair for The Climate Mobilization and served as Advisory Board Chair for iMatter Kids vs. Global Warming.