Joel Clement directed the Department of Interior’s Office of Policy Analysis and assessed the impacts of climate change on Native Arctic communities. In June 2017, Clement and dozens of senior officials were involuntarily reassigned as part of a larger systematic effort within the Trump administration to marginalize employees whose work focuses on climate change and other environmental issues. Clement wrote a scathing letter in The Washington Post entitled “I’m a Scientist. I’m blowing the whistle on the Trump administration,” calling out the administration for its dismissal of climate change issues and for silencing civil servants. Clement’s willingness to exercise his rights as a whistleblower rather than stay silent prompted widespread media coverage. Clement won the Callaway Award for Civic Courage in 2017 (Source: CPJ)
