Scott Bernstein is the Executive Director of Be the Change Earth Alliance. He developed a passion for the environment through camping adventures with his family and living in rural Wisconsin as an adult. Scott grew up in the Chicago Suburbs, on the traditional territory of the Peroria and Potawatomi people and migrated to Canada in 2006. He is lawyer in Vancouver, Canada, and the former Executive Director of MAPS Canada. As a lawyer, Scott has participated in strategic litigation focused on advancing human rights of people who use drugs, including appearing at the Supreme Court of Canada. Previously, he worked with the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition as Director of Policy supporting drug policy reforms including legal regulation, decriminalization, and expansion of harm reduction and with the Global Drug Policy Program of Open Society Foundations, where he supported collaboration within a global reform movement targeted at the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session through grant-making, policy expertise and strategic planning, as well as supporting a nascent drug policy reform movement in Africa.
Scott has a M.S. in Land Resources from the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison, a J.D. with a specialization in Environmental Law from the University of British Columbia, and a certificate in social justice-oriented mediation. He spends his spare time co-parenting his young son, playing board games, cooking, and visiting his off-grid yurt on the Gulf Islands.
