Background
She was born in 1947 in United States.
She was born in 1947 in United States.
Dudley received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University and a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
Fluent in Spanish, she worked from 1979 to 1983 for California's Agricultural Labor Relations Board in a number of positions, including senior counsel and counsel to the board. Her assignments there involved overseeing litigation as well as training staff in cases of unfair labor practice. Throughout the 1980 Dudley provided legal counsel on migrant worker issues, senior citizens' rights, and tenants' rights at the Legal Services Corporation, the California Rural Legal Assistance Program, and the National Lawyers Guild Military Law Project.
From 1983 to 1987 she was president and executive director of the National Lawyers Guild in New York, overseeing some 8, 000 attorneys, law students, and legal workers in the organization's 175 chapters nationwide. Dudley also taught law and politics courses at the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to joining Greenpeace she was first a program officer and then executive director of the Veatch Program. One of the most progressive grant foundations in the United States, this program distributed some $9 million to organizations around the country to promote such causes as environmental protection and environmental justice issues, community organizing, and rural and urban development.
In September 1992 Dudley, then age of 46, was selected executive director of Greenpeace USA, and officially took up the post on January 1, 1993. At that point Greenpeace had branches in 30 countries, over four million registered supporters and countless enthusiasts worldwide, a staff of 400 full-time members plus part-timers and volunteers in the thousands, and a reported budget of about $150 million. Dudley's successful nomination as executive director of one of the main branches, Greenpeace USA, ushered in a more media-savvy approach. The "Make a Wave" Committee Dudley's priorities involved first coordinating the efforts of nearly two million supporters across the United States; integrating activities and consulting with Stephen Sawyer, her predecessor and beginning in 1992 executive director of Greenpeace International, headquartered in Amsterdam; and finally, redefining the group's principal objectives.
Accordingly, under Dudley's influence Greenpeace outlined for itself four major campaign areas: atmosphere and energy, ocean ecology and forests, toxins, and disarmament. It also recognized a need to broaden its support base, attempting to connect with minorities and the disadvantaged, while also pointing up the greater impact of environmental degradation upon the world's poor. Equally significant, Greenpeace appeared to be shifting away from attention-grabbing stunts. Instead of being daredevils for the environment-scrambling up smokestacks in Michigan to protest sulfur dioxide emissions and acid rain, or putting themselves in inflatable boats between whales and Russian whaling vessels-Greenpeace lobbyists worked harder at strengthening legislation that protects the atmosphere, conserves dwindling natural resources, and encourages alternative energy sources.
As mirrored in Dudley's own career, Greenpeace was in the process of giving up its flair for the outrageous; becoming savvy in the use of computers, the media, and a global communications network; and stimulating the world community to see "mutual security" in the larger, environmental sense by practicing the arts of lobbying and compromise. Her tenure at Greenpeace USA ended in the summer of 1997, when she resigned to pursue other interests.
Quotations: She conceded in one speech before the Stanford Graduate School of Business that "we supply the media with the sound bites they need. That's what brings us the support of the public. "