Raina Rippel Named as the New Executive Director of Communtiopia
Communitopia’s Board of Directors and staff today welcome their new Executive Director, a veteran leader in the environmental nonprofit sector, Raina Rippel, as the next Executive leader of the organization effective May 9, 2022. Ms. Rippel will be the second Communitopia Executive Director since the organization was established in 2009 following the tenure of Katie Modic, who has been with the organization since 2018. Prior to Ms. Modic, Communitopia was effectively led by a hard working board of directors including then President Joylette Portlock, who now leads Sustainable Pittsburgh.
Raina has a long history of leading nonprofits. She started her career in 1999 as the Executive Director for Physicians for Social/Responsibility’s Maine Chapter. In 2008 she moved on to become the Executive Director of the Center for Coalfield Justice where she developed a regional coalition linking local grassroots organization with national scale events and media. In 2011 she was named Executive Director of Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project where she remained for the next decade. While at the Environmental Health Project, she was the recipient of the 2016 Jean and Leslie Douglas Pearl Award, and the 2020 PennFuture Woman of Environmental Justice Award. Most recently she spent a year working on the front lines of public health as a Case Investigator contracted with the PA Department of Health for the COVID pandemic and has just completed her commitment as the Senior Fellow for the Halt the Harm Network, a nationwide network of grassroots leaders working to solve the myriad problems coming from the Oil & Gas industry and fracking.
“Our organization is delighted that Raina will become Communitopia’s next leader,” said Ellen Conrad, Communitopia’s Board Chair. “Raina is an accomplished gamechanger in the advancement of small to mid-sized environmental nonprofits and has a track record of success centering and lifting the voices of frontline communities. She will bring new perspective and experience to advancing our mission, scaling our district-level programming, creating and maintaining channels for additional impact, and engaging the community in new ways in order to further enhance and grow our work,” added current Executive Director, Katie Modic.
Communitopia is fortunate to have managed their leadership transition in a way that allows an overlap of a number of weeks between Ms. Modic and Ms. Rippel. The two leaders are looking forward to this structured opportunity for collaboration before Katie’s departure on June 1st. To welcome Raina to the team, please send her an email at raina@communitopia.org.
