Gulf Restoration Network: Ready from Day One

News Type: 
Success Story
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Cynthia Sarthou, executive director of the Gulf Restoration Network (GRN) in New Orleans, LA, is no stranger to crisis. When the BP oil spill hit the Gulf, Cynthia and her organization were ready for action. 

“Sadly, Hurricane Katrina prepared us for this,” she says. “We had already ramped up our monitoring capability and advocacy roles.” 

Now, GRN is a central player in independently monitoring the release of oil and the clean-up efforts. “We have been out there since day one,” says Cynthia, as they work to try to determine the impact of the spill and the efficacy of the clean-up work that is being done. GRN is also urging congressional action to increase regulation and change the way the oil and gas industry do business.

Prior to being an executive director, Cynthia was a campaign director with experience as a litigator. She led successful campaigns to reduce wetlands losses in Louisiana and Mississippi and force EPA to start addressing the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico. “When I transitioned to being an executive director, it was clear to me that I didn’t have the training,” said Cynthia. “I was an advocate, an activist.” 
That was when a colleague from the Environmental Support Center recommended ICL’s Executive Director Leadership Program. “I learned what I needed to do as an executive director, and I learned that running an organization is like running a business,” says Cynthia. She followed the advice she got at ICL, and “because of that, Gulf Restoration Network is pretty effective.” Indeed, under her tenure, the organization has grown from 2 people to 14. She has relied on ICL not only for her own professional development, but she also sends her staff to ICL programs such as Leading From Within. 
Cynthia points out that in order for environmental organizations to be effective, their leaders must be “very focused on the health of the organization itself, even if that means sometimes sacrificing my time for the issue work that is the love of my life. I understand that that is my role. ICL taught me that.”