Biography : Marc de la Vergne

Marc de la Vergne joined the PCL Foundation staff in January 1997. He provides day-to-day supervision of PCL Foundation policy research, coalition building, grassroots technical assistance programs, and publications, as well as coordination of PCL Foundation project development and strategic planning in the areas of land use, energy, water and coastal policy. De la Vergne lobbies in the Legislature on smart growth and environmental justice issues.

He directs PCLF’s citizen training program in land use, which trains activists, business people and government planners to participate effectively in public environmental decision making processes. The program includes instruction in how to work with the California Environmental Quality Act, general plans and local growth control techniques. He also directs the PCL and PCL Foundation’s implementation of its policy and organizational development goals at the intersection of social equity and the environment. De la Vergne oversaw development of PCL’s and PCLF’s environmental justice strategic plan, which was approved by the organizations in 2002, and currently is in its early stages of implementation.

In 1988, he received the degree of Master in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, with a concentration in affordable housing and community development policy. He also received a bachelor’s in Political Science from U.C. Berkeley, from which he graduated in 1985.

De la Vergne returned to California and to environmental issues after working for a decade in the inner-city community development field in New York and Denver. In that capacity he oversaw the creation of mixed-use urban community development projects and directed programs to train low-income minority citizens to participate in socially and environmentally responsible neighborhood redevelopment.