CALPIRG Staff

Emily Rusch is the State Director of CALPIRG. She oversees CALPIRG's programs to protect consumers, make health care more affordable and accessible, reduce wasterful tax subsidies for special interests, invest in better public transportation, and more. In 2010 she helped run a statewide field campaign on 40 college campuses to ensure that younger voters turned out to help defeat Prop 23, a ballot measure funded by the oil industry. In 2008 she ran CALPIRG’s successful statewide field campaign to pass Prop 1A and invest in high-speed rail in California. Prior to joining CALPIRG's staff, Emily worked for four years as New Jersey PIRG’s Energy Advocate. Emily grew up in Culver City, California and graduated from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, in 2001. She’s based in our San Francisco office and has worked with U.S.PIRG, the federation of state PIRGs, since 2001.