Mark X. Jacobs

Mark X. Jacobs is a Senior Mediator and Program Director at Meridian. He has provided leadership to numerous projects at the intersection of climate change, natural resource management, agriculture, forestry, and human well-being. Most recently, he began providing leadership to Meridian’s work to advance private investment to achieve transformation of critical systems. A recent highlight is co-leading a collaboration among environmental organizations and Indigenous People’s organizations to develop consensus guidance for companies regarding purchase of high-integrity tropical forest carbon credits, resulting in the Tropical Forest Credit Integrity Guide.

Mark has 25 years of experience in collaborative process design and facilitation, environmental protection, and nonprofit leadership. As the Founding Executive Director of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, Mark played a pivotal role in engaging the American Jewish community in environmental protection and providing leadership to interfaith environmental alliances. Mark first joined Meridian in 2008. Between 2015 and 2020, he served as the Associate Director of an urban community farm and education center in Berkeley. He returned to Meridian in 2020.

Mark is an avid vegetable gardener and sailor, and in recent years has taken up learning classical piano. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his husband of more than 20 years and their two children.