Center for Climate Protection names Cohen CEO of Santa Rosa-based policy group

Ellie Cohen will join the Center for Climate Protection on Sept. 1, filling a newly created position of CEO, the Santa-Rosa-based announced Tuesday.

Cohen comes to the center from Petaluma-based Point Blue Conservation Science, where she served as president and CEO. Point Blue was founded in 1965 as the Point Reyes Bird Observatory. The nonprofit was created to study bird migration and now has several active field research stations and sites throughout California.

Cohen will “spearhead the organization’s climate emergency policy efforts in California and beyond,” the announcement stated. Ann Hancock, the Center for Climate Protection’s co-founder and executive director, will continue on staff as a member of the its leadership team.

“The Arctic is burning, Greenland is melting, the ocean is heating up, and ecosystems are rapidly degrading-all driving record-breaking temperatures, drought, flooding, and wildfires. We urgently need to enact policies that, at minimum, align with the science and climate reality to return to a safe climate,” Cohen stated in the announcement.