A virtual celebration to honor the Sierra Club’s 2026 National Award Winners was held on October 14.
The Environmental Alliance Award recognizes Sierra Club members who advance environmental goals through collaboration with non-Sierra Club constituencies. This year it was awarded to Pam Heatherington, a Cal Poly graduate, coalition builder and conservation leader, who has led the San Diego region’s Wildlife and Habitat Conservation Coalition, the Quality of Life Coalition, and the 30x30 regional group to protect both land and wildlife.
Pam is also Executive Director of the Environmental Center of San Diego. If that name sounds similar to the Environmental Center of San Luis Obispo, aka ECOSLO, it should. Pam co-founded ECO San Diego in 2015 after serving as ECOSLO’s Executive Director back when Sierra Club and ECOSLO co-habited in a little craftsman house on the corner of Marsh and Nipomo in SLO in the early 2000s. That was also when she served as Chair of the Sierra Club Santa Lucia Chapter Conservation Committee and as a member of Sierra Club’s National Toxics Committee. She also served on the San Luis Obispo County Health Commission for over a decade and was a member of the Atascadero Planning Commission and Treasurer for the San Luis Bay Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.
She can put her Environmental Alliance Award on the shelf with her Rhodes Award from the League of Women Voters, Jim Peugh Conservation Award, and Bill Denneen Environmental Award.
“Few people embody the volunteer spirit like Pam,” said former Santa Lucia Chapter Director Andrew Christie. “She was my supervisor when I first came to work for the Sierra Club in SLO. She introduced me to the issues, showed me the ropes, and made coming to work every day a joy. I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor, and the Club couldn’t have picked a more deserving recipient for this award.”