Meet Our Executive Director

Meet our Executive Director Jason Rainey.

July 2011

As the world's rivers are increasingly threatened by destructive large dams, International Rivers continues to grow and nurture the global movement for healthy rivers and human rights. Jason is supremely qualified to lead our organization in this challenging time.

Jason Rainey has led economic justice and ecological restoration initiatives in California and around the world. He served as the Executive Director of the South Yuba River Citizens' League (SYRCL) for the past six years, where he energized a strong grassroots movement to restore the Yuba River from the devastation caused by dams, diversions, gold mining, and development. At SYRCL, Jason mobilized community members to restore the degraded Yuba River, brokered agreements with water users to improve in-stream flows and water quality, and collaborated with the local Tsi-Akim Maidu Tribe to regenerate wild salmon populations. Internationally, he has worked as an educator, researcher and organizer for human rights and environmental groups in Russia, Zimbabwe, Nicaragua, and Thailand.