Join us for food, drinks, and great conversations at the Raven Kitchen and Bar in Seattle as we gather for our 2024 Young Professionals Seattle Happy Hour!

We will be joined by Benji Backer, founder of the American Conservation Coalition, alongside Todd Myers, Director for WPC’s Center for Research on the Environment! If you are interested in environmental policy, this event is for you - Todd and Benji will provide an update on their work as well as share their expertise in all things environmental policy in Washington state. There will also be time for audience Q&A. Keep reading to learn more about our two speakers, and register now!

Meet the Speakers

Benji Backer

Benji Backer is the founder and executive chairman of the American Conservation Coalition (ACC), the largest right-of-center environmental organization in the country. For his work spearheading the ACC, he has been named to the Fortune 40 Under 40, Forbes 30 Under 30, GreenBiz 30 Under 30, and Grist 50 lists. A frequent contributor to national media outlets, he’s become  one of the leading environmental voices in the United States. Above all, Backer is an avid outdoorsman who spends most of his free time in the mountains out West.

Todd Myers

With more than two decades in environmental policy, Todd Myers’s experience includes work on a range of environmental issues including climate policy, forest health, old-growth forests, and salmon recovery. He is the author of “Time to Think Small: How nimble environmental technologies can solve the planet’s biggest problems,” which outlines how small technologies are empowering people to protect threatened wildlife species, reduce CO2 emissions, and reduce ocean plastic. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Seattle Times, and USA Today, and he has appeared on numerous news networks including CNBC, Fox News, the BBC, and CNN. He served as vice president of the Northwest Association of Biomedical Research and received their Distinguished Service Award in 2018 for his support of bioscience. He has also served as president of the Prescription Drug Assistance Foundation, a nonprofit providing medicines to low-income patients. In 2021, Myers served as president of his local beekeeping club in his quest to build an army of stinging insects at his command. He has a bachelor’s degree in politics from Whitman College and a master’s degree in Russian/International Studies from the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He and his wife Maria live in the Cascade Mountains in Washington state with 200,000 honeybees, and he claims to make an amazing pasta carbonara and an incredible dirty vodka martini with blue-cheese-stuffed olives

Register Now!