CoPIRG Staff

Mr. Katz started in 2001 as a Campus Organizer with WISPIRG at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he organized students around clean water, clean energy, affordable education and poverty issues. In 2002, he helped pass a state bill in Wisconsin which established the toughest clean water standards for agricultural run-off pollution in the country. In 2004, he was an assistant organizing director for the New Voters Project in Wisconsin that registered over 100,000 18-30 year olds to vote and built WISPIRG’s capacity by developing a plan to recruit and empower hundreds of student leaders. Danny was the Organizing Director for CALPIRG from 2004-2008 where he oversaw 13 staff, implemented an organizing model that recruited 500 student leaders annually and was one of the Field Directors in 2008 for the successful Prop 1A ballot initiative in California, which created the funds to build the nation’s first High-Speed Rail network.

Since taking over as the Director of CoPIRG in 2008, he has successfully led efforts to increase food safety standards for schools lunches, increase transparency around nearly $1 billion in state tax breaks and create the framework for the Colorado Health Benefit Exchange. He has also overseen the launch of CoPIRG’s Energy Service Corps program, a joint project with AmeriCorps.

Mr. Katz graduated from the University of Virginia in 2001 with his Bachelors and is a native from Boulder Colorado. Mr. Katz is often quoted in the press and has been a guest on numerous shows from the David Sirota Show to the Devil’s Advocate with Jon Caldera.