Leah Qusba is the Chief Executive Officer of Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE) and has been advancing ACE’s mission since 2009. Leah has had the unique experience of working to build the organization from the ground up, helping it grow into a national leader working at the nexus of youth, media and civic engagement to accelerate our pathway toward a decarbonized world.

Under Leah’s tenure as CEO, ACE has grown 10x in size and impact. The organization now reaches tens of millions of people with its programs each year, driving a new climate narrative to engage audiences that the movement has yet to reach, and utilizing leading-edge media strategies to combat dangerous disinformation, drive action-taking, and increase diverse participation in the democratic process.

Prior to becoming CEO, Leah served as ACE’s Campaigns and Partnerships Director, leading work on the Hill and engaging partners in the Obama White House. She also served as Communications and Marketing Director, leading a strategy to build ACE’s first world-class digital communications and marketing team. Prior to ACE, Leah managed outreach and fundraising with Global Impact, an international federation of charities based in the Washington DC area.

Leah is a 2024 Nonprofit Executive Fellow with the Allstate Foundation and the Kellogg School, Center for Nonprofit Management at Northwestern University. 

Leah’s interest in this work sparked as a kid growing up in the “Paper Valley,” a section of the Fox River in northeastern Wisconsin with the highest concentration of paper mills in the world, and that was designated as a Superfund Site by the EPA from unregulated toxic waste dumping by the paper industry in the 90s.