Sign of the times: Gore's communications director and environmental advisor is leaving

Al Gore’s Communications Director Returns To Fenton

WASHINGTON, DC--Kalee Kreider, who has spent the past six years as environmental advisor and comms director for Al Gore, is returning to the agency world to rejoin Fenton Communications.

Kalee Kreider '92 | Alumni Profile | Spring 2009 | Rollins Magazine | Rollins College

When former vice president Al Gore calls, answer. “He said, ‘I have a crazy idea: I think you should move to Tennessee and work for me full time,’” said Kalee Kreider ’92.
...She answered the call and became Gore’s communications director and environmental advisor in 2006. However, Kreider happened to join Gore when he was putting the finishing touches on a little project about his global warming slide show. It would become the film An Inconvenient Truth, for which Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, two Academy Awards, and, for its accompanying book, a long run on the New York Times Best Sellers List. Almost instantly, he was transformed from a respected also-ran into an A-list global celebrity, on the same level as a Bono or a Bill Gates.

...After building Ozone Action, Kreider was ready to take another risk—this time with Greenpeace, the global environmental interventionist organization. As director of the U.S. Climate Campaign and communications director, Kreider’s most important work with Greenpeace was helping to negotiate the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases. “I loved every minute of it. I was out of the country about half the time,” she said. “I spent three summers in the western Arctic, living on a ship, seeing firsthand the impact of global warming on the Poles.”

The frequent flier miles finally took their toll, though. By early 1999, she was ready to give her passport a rest. “I was tired,” she said. “All that travel was exhausting.”

...It’s clear Kreider’s gamble to join Gore in Tennessee has paid off, both professionally and personally. Within a 12-month period, she attended the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Norway, dressed up for the Academy Awards and after-parties in Hollywood, joined Gore on his book tour, donned a gown for the Emmy Awards, met heads of state in 40 countries..