Andre Delattre
Executive Director, USPIRG

Since 1997, Andre Delattre has overseen the PIRGs’ national campus program, which includes chapters at 75 college campuses across the country.

During this time, the campus program has grown in both scope and impact. Our 90 staff are currently working with more than 800 student interns and 12,500 volunteers on more than 100 campuses. Since 1997, the PIRGs have added new chapters at nine new campuses, increased funding for the program through student membership dues, and attracted grant support from such foundations as The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Open Society Institute.

Under Mr. Delattre’s leadership, PIRG campus chapters have also launched several new initiatives, including the New Voters Project, Make Textbooks Affordable campaign, the Student Debt Alert campaign, and the Campus Climate Challenge. The New Voters Project alone has achieved enormous success, resulting in 600,000 new young voters in 2004. Intensive follow-up studies confirm that the Project also helped boost young voter turnout.

Before assuming national leadership of the PIRGs’ campus program, Mr. Delattre served as organizing director for California PIRG (CALPIRG). From 1993 to 1997, he helped build the organization’s student membership to 38.600 people at seven schools, while overseeing CALPIRG’s many student programs and projects, including efforts on campaign finance reform, recycling, clean air and forest preservation.

Mr. Delattre has also played an integral role in training and working with new staff for the organization. Among them: Dave Rosenfeld, who started with MASSPIRG in 1995 and now serves as national program director for PIRGs’ student chapters; Allison Cairo, who started with Massachusetts Community Water Watch, and now serves as executive director of NJPIRG; Ellynne Bannon who, started with CALPIRG, worked for the House Education and Workforce Committee, and now serves as the director of the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project; Kathleen Barr, director of Research & Education for Rock the Vote; and Tiernan Sittenfield, legislative director of the League of Conservation Voters.

Mr. Delattre is a 1989 graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. While attending the school, he volunteered with CALPIRG and was elected chair of CALPIRG’s student board of directors in 1986.

Mr. Delattre lives in Chicago.