Résumé and C.V.

Click here for a PDF version of Nathan Empsall’s résumé.

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Professional Experience
Education
Journal Publications
Academic Conference Presentations
Fellowships and Honors
Service Work and Personal Activities

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Freelance Organizer and Digital Campaign Strategy Consultant, 2010 – 2019

  • Experienced online campaigner and writer with an excellent grasp of email and social media best practices, grassroots community organizing, multivariate testing, and theory of change for fundraising and advocacy
  • Familiar with Blue State Digital, Convio, and WordPress
  • Past and current clients include consulting firms, statewide and local progressive candidates for office, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, progressive and environmental issue campaigns and non-profits, Change.org, and Care2

United Nations Headquarters and Episcopal Church Center, New York City
Episcopal Church United Nations Seminarian Intern, 08/2017 – 05/2018

  • Worked with church staff and interfaith partners at the UN, attended official UN meetings, contacted member-state missions, wrote church communications on a wide variety of issues
  • Member of the Presiding Bishop’s official delegations to the COP23 climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany, and the 17th UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York

Mary Washington Hospital, Fredericksburg, VA
Clinical Pastoral Education – Hospital Chaplain Intern, 05/2016 – 08/2016

  • Visited patients, families, and staff of all faiths and none in surgical and medical wards
  • Served as an onsite, overnight on-call chaplain, primarily in the Emergency Department

Care2, Washington, DC
Senior Digital Strategist, 09/2014 – 08/2015

  • Contacted citizen authors to optimize and promote their petitions to Care2 members and the press
  • Created and promoted new online petitions, particularly around climate issues and Black Lives Matter
  • Worked with non-profit partners, including Ready for Warren and Stamp Stampede, to grow their email lists
  • Grew Care2’s email lists by hundreds of thousands of profitable new members with high retention rates

Sierra Club, Washington, DC
Senior Digital Innovation Campaigner, 05/2013 – 09/2014    

  • Selected and led online campaigns for the new SierraRise branding and email list using such tools as Convio, ActionSprout, Share Progress, Causes, CrowdTangle, and more
  • Primary staffer for the Digital Innovation team’s email testing program, data reporting, and fundraising
  • Designed A/B and multivariate tests that increased share rates by 13% and donations by 20%-50%
  • Wrote the Club’s most viral alerts for 2013 and 2014; fundraisers consistently outperformed benchmarks
  • Played a lead role in successful campaigns to pressure Google and Facebook into quitting ALEC and to save endangered Florida panthers from oil drilling

Sierra Club, Washington, DC
National Online Organizer, Beyond Oil Campaign, 02/2012 – 05/2013

  • Designed and executed digital strategy and tactics for tar sands and green transportation campaigns
  • Digital lead for the Forward on Climate Rally in Washington, DC, one of the New Organizing Institute’s “13 Best Organizing Moments of 2013”
  • Gathered 207,000 comments against the Keystone XL pipeline, a Sierra Club record and successful campaign
  • Wrote the Sierra Club’s 2012 election IE emails and behavioral-psychology GOTV strategies

M+R Strategic Services, Washington, DC
Online Associate, 10/2011 – 01/2012

  • Wrote and coded mass email messages and compiled data reports for non-profit clients, including the League of Conservation Votes, AARP, UNICEF, and Oceana
  • Lead writer for a successful end-of-year fundraising series, outraising the client’s previous EOY

Organizing for America, Washington, DC
Email Campaigner, 08/2010 – 10/2011

  • Wrote and coded over 700 emails to millions of supporters on the official Barack Obama email list in Blue State Digital
  • Ran the OFA email mobilization program for online-to-offline volunteer conversions
  • Helped launch the Obama for America reelection campaign and email list
  • Wrote for rapid response projects, fundraisers, blog posts, Tweets, and Facebook posts
  • Assisted with tests that proved mobilization emails can increase voter turnout, solicit donations without increasing unsubscription rates, and integrate multiple platforms and lists

Alliance for Climate Protection, Repower America Campaign, Omaha, NE
Faith Outreach Coordinator, 09/2009 – 05/2010

  • Organized Nebraska clergy to address climate change and support clean energy legislation
  • Wrote op-eds, planned events, researched Nebraska churches, and assisted other organizers

Episcopal Service Corps, Church of the Resurrection, Omaha, NE
Ministry Intern, 09/2009 – 05/2010

  • Preached, led adult education classes, visited hospital patients, assisted with worship, co-led the youth group, among other church jobs

Episcopal Church Office of Government Relations, Washington, DC
Public Policy Intern, 06/2008 – 08/2008

  • Researched and wrote reports and e-mail alerts on a wide variety of issues including cluster bombs, the Indian Health Service, affordable housing, and African development

U.S. Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), Washington, DC
Agricultural Intern, 03/2008 – 06/2008

  • Assisted the Senator’s staff by attending meetings, answering constituent letters, guiding Capitol tours, and researching issues including the US Forest Service, renewable energy, education, and the Farm Bill

Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA
Disaster Response Intern and Tucker Fellow, 09/2006 – 12/2006

  • Took off an academic term one year after Hurricane Katrina to assist with recovery efforts, in addition to two spring breaks spent doing the same
  • Co-led a Ninth Ward distribution center, trained volunteers, gutted homes

The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, WA
Idaho Correspondent and Political Columnist, 09/2001 – 12/2006

Episcopal Diocese of Spokane, Spokane, WA
Communications Intern, 06/2006 – 09/2006

Wendy’s, Coeur d’Alene, ID
Crew Member, 08/2004 – 08/2005

EDUCATION

Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT

  • Master of Divinity, 2019
  • Completed all requirements for a Master of Arts in Religion, concentrated in religion and ecology
    • Not officially awarded the M.A.R. given school restrictions
  • Diploma in Anglican Studies, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale
  • Adviser: Miroslav Volf

Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, New Haven, CT

  • Master of Environmental Management, 2019
  • Advisers: John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker
  • Includes coursework at Yale Law School and the Yale School of Management

Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

  • B.A., Government and Native American Studies, 2009
  • Government independent-study thesis: Inclusive Evangelicalism: The Decline of the Religious Right & A New Generation of Evangelical Activists
    • Thesis Adviser: Joseph Bafumi

JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS

ACADEMIC CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

  • Fordham Theology Graduate Conference: “Life in the Anthropocene: Theology and the Environment;” Fordham University, New York, NY; 04/11-12/19; A Survey of Episcopal Church Eco-Ministries: What 100 Congregations are Doing About Climate Change, and Why They’re Not Doing More
  • 2019 American Academy of Religion (NEMAAR region) Annual Conference; Tufts University, Medford, MA; 03/22/2019: A Survey of Episcopal Church Eco-Ministries: What 100 Congregations are Doing About Creation and Climate Change, and Why They’re Not Doing More
  • Third Annual Graduate Conference on Religion and Ecology; Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT; 02/08/2019: Furthering an Intercentric Environmental Ethic: Moving Beyond Anthropocentrism and Biocentrism to Focus on the Ecological and Spiritual Reality of Interconnection
  • Au Sable Institute Graduate Fellows Conference; Mancelona, MI; 01/18-20/2019: The Eco-Ministry Survey: What 100 Episcopal Congregations Are Doing to Care for God’s Creation, and Why They’re Not Doing More
  • 24th International Interdisciplinary Conference on the Environment; Interdisciplinary Environmental Association, Montreal, QC; 06/22-24/2018: You’re All Right: The Pressing Need for an Intercentric Environmental Ethic
  • Conference on Religion, Populism, & Pluralism; Yale MacMillan Center Initiative on Religion, Politics, and Society, New Haven, CT; 05/05/2018: From Privacy to Pluralism: Why Progressive Christians Don’t Talk About Their Faith in the Public Square
  • Second Annual Symposium on the Environmental Humanities; Yale Environmental Humanities, New Haven, CT; 05/03/2018: You’re All Right: The Pressing Need for an Intercentric Environmental Ethic
  • Monthly Yale Colloquium on Religion and Ecology, New Haven, CT; 04/10/18: Religion, Climate Change, and the United Nations: The Episcopal Presence at COP
  • Inaugural Graduate Conference on Religion and Ecology; Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT; 04/21/2017: Conservation and the Church: Five Case Studies Exploring Why Environmental Awareness, Advocacy, and Ministry are Lacking in Christian Congregations
  • Monthly Yale Colloquium on Religion and Ecology, New Haven, CT; 11/14/16: Federal-Indian Law: A Broader Context for Standing Rock and Oak Flat

FELLOWSHIPS AND HONORS

  • Au Sable Institute Graduate Fellow, for Christian environmental stewardship, 2016-2019
  • Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY) 2050 Fellow, 2016-2018
  • Dartmouth College Tucker Fellow, for a Hurricane Katrina recovery internship, 2006

SERVICE WORK AND PERSONAL ACTIVITIES

  • Founding editor, Episcopal Climate News, episcopalclimatenews.com and facebook.com/EpiscopalClimateNews/
  • Member, Episcopal Church Task Force on Care of Creation and Environmental Racism, 2018-2021
  • Peer Reviewer, FERNS: An Academic Student Journal on Environmental Stewardship, 2018-2019
  • Red Cross certified in Adult and Pediatric First Aid/CPR/AED
  • Volunteer, Hillary For America headquarters, November 2016
  • Member of Biden for President (2008) New Hampshire Steering Committee