Young  Climate Leaders of Color

Amara Ifeji is an internationally awarded non-profit leader in climate and environmental justice. Amara contributes to and advances legislative and policy solutions focused on systemic transformation to ensure equitable access to the outdoors and climate justice education for ALL youth. In high school, her barriers to access to environmental learning compelled her to lead community science learning efforts for students of color like herself and conduct nationally recognized climate environmental research.As the Director of Policy with the Maine Environmental Education Association, Amara’s passion for environmental education as a tool for social transformation has led her to mobilize youth-led, grassroots movements to advance state and federal environmental education policies. Most recently, she contributed to securing over $2 million for climate education professional development in Maine. In recognition of her work, she was named a 2021 National Geographic Young Explorer and 2022 Brower Youth Awardee. Amara is excited to connect with other folks in the YCLC network and cross-pollinate ideas and learnings. In her free time, Amara enjoys hiking Maine’s woods, kayaking, reading, and learning new languages.

Amari (She/ her) is a 26-year-old educator from Springfield, MA. She teaches English to 7th graders at a large inner-city school. Since 2019, Amari has been an active member of LiveWell Springfield’s Climate Change, Health, and Equity (CCHE) Coalition. As a coalition resident advocate, she joins with leaders from non-profits, businesses, key stakeholders, and partner organizations to advocate for policies and systems changes that address health disparities directly linked to climate change. Springfield, MA is ranked 12th in the nation for asthma. Amari has been a climate warrior since she first learned about the impact of our carbon footprint. Amari will always hold space and time for climate justice work, as she holds it close to her heart. Amari applied to the YCLC program out of interest and a desire to meet like-minded individuals who share a common goal. Her hope is that she walks away from this program with a renewed sense of motivation and fresh ideas on what she can do to make a change.For fun, Amari likes to binge-watch interesting shows on streaming platforms, go to the movies, take walks, hike at a local reservoir, travel, spend time with loved ones, garden, and laugh.

Ashley Ramirez (she/her) is from the Bay Area. She was born in Phoenix, Arizona – but has lived in Richmond, CA for the majority of her life. She graduated from Making Waves Academy, where she was a part of the girls' varsity soccer team and cross country team. During her high school years, Ashley was also a part of the ALA Girls State and Youth Vs Apocalypse (YVA) – these programs allowed her to find my passion for youth activism, politics and environmental justice. She is currently a first-year student at Sac State as a political-science major. Ashley still enjoys playing soccer and staying physically fit. As she enters the second semester of her freshman year, Ashley aspires to complete her philosophical goal of uplifting the voices of those who are underrepresented. Being able to create a positive impact in low-income communities is what inspires her the most. Ashley was inspired to apply to the YCLC program because it’s an opportunity to meet new people who share similar interests as her and people who can guide her in accomplishing her mission statement.

Ayushi (she/her) has worked in philanthropy for the past five years, organizing wealth for reparations and redistribution. Working to heal extractive wealth accumulation at the interpersonal and systemic levels led her to somatics and the healing justice movement. Ayushi is currently a Fellow at the Just Economy Institute, where she is focusing on integrated capital strategies for transitioning to solidarity economies. Ayushi is in the first year of the Leadership for Sustainability master's program at the University of Vermont, an online learning ecosystem for organizers that has been beautifully healing after years enduring the violence of academia. Through the program, she has been studying the people and places she comes from, and reckoning with what that means for her role in the world. This inquiry into her lineage has taught her that economy - the root word of which means “management of home” - is fundamentally about how we organize our relationships in a place, to take care of it and of each other. Consequently, she has a responsibility to integrate land stewardship, climate change, and ecology into the economic work she does.Ayushi grew up in New Delhi, India, and has called the Bay Area home for the past eight years.

Brayan Cruz (He/They) is located on the traditional lands of the Acjachemen people in Santa Ana, OC. As a migrant Two-Spirit person, their work is driven by the preservation of culture through seeds and food. Their knowledge comes from their lived experiences as a working-class migrant person, their community, and their culture. They are currently working in five community gardens in their community. Where they are actively supporting the development of a Seed Library. A Seed Library that will uplift seed and food sovereignty endeavors in their community. They are driven by intergeneration healing and migrant justice initiatives. Their individual and collective work is part of a greater responsibility. A responsibility to care for the land and seeds for the next generations. As an undocumented person, they believe in the access to traditional food and cooking materials as a medium for holistic wellness. The support, resources, and the nationwide efforts of the YCLC were the major contributing factors to their application into the program. They are excited to build community with people with similar ideas and projects that align. When they are not found gardening or cooking they are dancing in moshpits.

Brit Ochoa (she/they) is passionate about community care, creativity, and sharing a delicious meal with whoever will join them. Brit currently serves as Policy Coordinator at La Semilla Food Center, primarily working on cross-programmatic collaborations that include youth workshops and the coordination of civic engagement on local, state, and federal regulations and legislation. Brit brings over six years of community organizing and research experience to the cohort, with an eclectic educational background (a B.A. in English with minors in both Art and Tourism Management) from Texas A&M University. Currently completing their Master of Social Work at the University of El Paso, Texas, Brit is dedicated to integrating civic engagement and cultural relevance into every aspect of their academic and professional work.

Cameron Oglesby is an environmental justice organizer, oral historian, ecologist, and award-winning journalist passionate about re-imagining what our relationship with Mother Earth looks like, re-envisioning what environmentalism looks like, and re-centering the voices, narratives, and knowledge of affected communities – communities of color and rural communities – in the stories we’re telling and the solutions we’re developing. Cameron received her B.A. in environmental science and policy from Duke University (‘21) and is currently pursuing an M.P.P at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy concentrating in environmental policy, corporate sustainability, and environmental justice (‘23). In partnership with prominent leaders and movement icons, Cameron has spent her six years in NC putting together events, showcases, and reporting on environmental racism with the goal of advancing climate awareness and environmental justice in the region. Her journalism has appeared in The Nation, The Margin, Grist, Southerly, and Environmental Health News. She is currently a freelance reporter for Yale Climate Connections, an Associate Editor at Earth in Color, and is developing a multi-media storytelling hub at Duke, The EJ Oral History Project. Post-graduation, Cameron will join McKinsey & Company where she hopes to develop robust EJ partnerships/research opportunities in their sustainability and public-sector practices.

A graduate of The Piney Woods School, a historically black boarding school, Candace Clark is a Tuskegee University Alumna from Chicago, IL; with a BS in Agricultural Business with a focus on sustainability and a certificate in International Relations, as well as a former USDA 189 Scholar. Her experiences abroad as an African American woman cultivated her internal obligation to serve her community and those like it abroad. Finishing at American University’s School of International Service and the United Nations University for peace with dual MA’s in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development, Candace, or Kandeaux the Farm Plug as she is known by many, hopes to empower black communities by learning and being a medium for sustainable agricultural techniques to small and middle farmers, internationally. She is a Farm Plug: An explorer, afro-futurist, & purveyor of emergent strategies; committed to education, the promotion of alternative, thriving lifestyles, and cultivating impactful connections between people, ideas, and nature in a way that is intersectional, restorative and regenerative. Using her experiences, she hopes to break down barriers by helping to develop and increase the capacity of her neighbors while simultaneously encouraging agricultural representation and intersectional justice. She is currently enrolled in Tuskegee University’s Integrative Public Policy and Development PhD program.

Charlotte Mourad(any pronouns) grew up in the unceded territory of the Tongva people, also known as the Inland Empire region of Southern California, and that inspires their work. The environmental challenges the region faces are rooted in capitalism and white supremacy, due to the rise of the e-commerce industry that has created severe air quality issues in underserved communities, with Amazon being one of the biggest offenders. Their current focus is working with frontline community members monitoring air pollution from mostly railyards and diesel trucking with the goal of holding these industries and the regulatory board accountable, as well as communicating and quantifying the true cost of free shipping. She is passionate about data sovereignty and returning any data collected back to the community in an accessible manner.Charlotte applied to the YCLC program so she could connect with other people involved in environmental justice in their communities as well as learn from them and their experiences through peer knowledge exchange. In their free time, she is learning how to crochet a blanket. Her favorite thing to do is cook food from the SWANA region for my family and friends. Charlotte has a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from UC Berkeley.

Dionna Brown (she/her) grew up in Flint, Michigan with deep roots in Detroit, Michigan, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. Dionna currently serves as the National Director of the Youth Environmental Justice Griot Program for Black Millennials 4 Flint (BM4F) where she carries out her mission to educate the youth and create future activists in her community. In this role, she successfully co-led a summer camp with Flint youth to teach them about the intersection of environmental justice and public health. Dionna’s experience living through the Flint Water Crisis sparked her thirst to be a voice for her community. Her drive for environmental justice and education also comes from the privilege of being educated at Howard University where she obtained a bachelor’s in Sociology. She is working on her master’s in Sociology and Juris doctorate at Wayne State University where she plans on being a civil rights attorney. Dionna is passionate about environmental and climate justice at the intersection of race and gender, law, politics, and social justice. She is fluent in Simplified Chinese and was accepted to the Tradition and Modernity in Taiwan Program for her stellar accomplishments in her Chinese classes while in college. Follow her on Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter @dionnalatrice_ or Instagram or TikTok @dionnadoesgradschool

My name is Dontay Wimberly and I am a Georgia native and I have lived in Atlanta all my life. I became very active in Social Movements around 2015 and I have been contributing to the movement in various capacities ever since. Each new crisis, b provides a new opportunity to reflect, learn and create a vision for the future. I channel my political passions through various forms of media including, song, poems, and the occasional short video. I have seen that through art, poets have the potential to map the future. I work to make the revolution irresistible.

I am a 19 year old Chicana organizer from Yelamu, also known as San Francisco. I have been organizing for intersectional climate solutions since I was 14 years old with a group called Youth Vs Apocalypse. Through organizing I’ve come to understand that there is a need to shift over into deeper race and class conversations as having to do with climate. The climate crisis must be reframed to be truthful about how pollution and climate exists, and how intersectional solutions are truly the only way to move forward. I continue to organize because I hope to be apart of the amazing community that push forward these necessary conversations as well as fight for tangible solutions to local and global climate issues. I joined YCLC to continue building a climate movement that is not only intersectional but a movement of integrity and truth. When I’m not organizing I’m a full time student. When I’m not a full time student I’m reading, writing and drawing.

I am a queer Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) kiaʻi wai (water protector), aloha ʻāina, activist, haʻiʻōlelo (orator), organizer/facilitator, and creative raised in Maunalua, on the island of Oʻahu. I am kanaka diaspora born on Ohlone Lands. I am accountable to Ka Lāhui Hawaiʻi (The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi). I currently work at Loko Ea fishpond, a 400-year-old traditional fishpond, as a research alakaʻi (lead) and restoration assistant. I led monthly community workdays, removing invasive algae and restoring native plant, fish and bird species. As a kumu (teacher), I educated elementary students through moʻolelo (stories), place-based education, mele (song), and good ol’ fashion hard work. I recently graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a BA in Political Science, concentrating in International Relations and Environmental Policy. While at UCSB, I organized with the UCDivestTMT campaign, mobilizing students across California to demand the UC divest and reinvest in their students and indigenous communities. My pursuits are directed towards a complete hulihia (overturn) of decision-making power from Hawaiʻi throughout Moku Honu (Turtle Island). My activism focuses on food sovereignty, decolonization/demilitarization, the protection of sacred sites, emboldening the ʻoiaʻiʻo (truth) of our histories and healing through connection to place.

My name is Hunter, but I'm also known as hunter jpg. I'm a multidisciplinary creative, from Piscataway lands in Maryland, now living on Tongva lands better known as Los Angeles, CA. My creations can be found in both the digital space and within the community, from canvas paintings, digital images, animations, music, activated jewelry, to public murals throughout the DMV. I’m best known for my use of vibrant colors and energetically charged scenes that show a deeper desire to better connect with humans and Mama Earth. My work revolves around environmental and social justice, through an intersectional and Afrofuturistic lens, that also connects to my identities as a queer Black person in the US.Through this opportunity, I hope to meet other like minded individuals. Collective action has the greatest potential for impact. I have been inspired by the solidarity in places like Columbia and Iran where the community is coming together to make their voices heard. There is a Swahili term “Harambe” which means “all pull together”. I’m an artist who wears many hats, but if I hope to create something resilient that will benefit future generations it will take many passionate people to get the work done.

Isabel Sanchez (They/Them) grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and learned to be compassionate towards nature early in life through spending summers outside with their Latine grandmother. They studied natural resources and practiced sustainable living in a demonstration home at Cal Poly Humboldt. In 2018, Isabel served as the Environmental Sustainability Officer for both Cal Poly Humboldt’s Associated Students and California State Student Association representing over 500,000 CSU students on a statewide level. Isabel moved to the PNW shortly after the pandemic started to live their queer dream with their partner and two very cute and silly cats. They currently work as a Climate and Health Coordinator for a coalition that supports Oregon’s communities of color. Isabel is passionate about supporting frontline communities who experience the worst burdens of the pandemic and climate change. Outside of work, Isabel goes by DJ Flor Violenta and is the host of Vinyl Pleasures Radio for a local community radio station. They recently took on a leadership role to ensure that the station is upholding its commitment to being diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

Isabella Higgins (she/her) is a Philadelphia transplant originally from Albany, New York. She is currently working as a Farmer and Farm Program Manager at Urban Creators, an urban farm encompassing one city block. She is incredibly passionate about food justice and accessibility, and how best to educate and equip young people to be empowered growers and develop positive relationships with food and land. She is moved by the power food has to bring people together and strives to create spaces that foster community where people are nourished-mind, body and soul. Isabella loves cooking dinner with friends, reading, going to concerts, and picking up too many little hobbies.

Isaiah Johnson is a Diversity Activist in the Bay Area. He carries out his work through the Video Game Industry where he Advocates for Diverse Representation, Inclusion, Mental Health, and Social Reform. Isaiah is the Founder of Project Beanstalk, a video game studio that fosters Diversity & Inclusion throughout the Game Industry. Project Beanstalk develops games that portray different cultures in a positive and fun light. Beanstalk creates opportunities for people from underprivileged backgrounds to pursue video game careers. Isaiah's drive towards social change was sparked and cultivated in Oakland, California. There, Isaiah has made a positive impact on several communities from granting awards (such as the Brandon Harrison Award) to local change makers, to inspiring youth and adults through public engagement. On average, Isaiah's social impact-centered communities were full of progressive, supportive, hard-working, and inspiring leaders! (Outside of the occasional misleading or corrupt programs). However when building out his career in the video game industry, Isaiah realized that many spaces centered around game development are a lot more oppressive. Experiencing the injustices created by this toxic culture has driven Isaiah's goal to create healthier gaming communities using everything he's learned through his work in social impact. @projectbeanstalkwww.projbeanstalk.xyz

Jaelyn Elizabeth (she/they) is a Black, neurodiverse artist, facilitator, and creative director based in Sacramento, California (Miwok - Patwin - Nisenan territories). They have been dedicated to radical self and collaborative care practices that align with the land's sustainability for over a decade. Through urban farming, facilitating expression-based therapeutic and service-oriented events, and creating art based on her experiences with wellness and survival in late-stage capitalism, Jaelyn hopes to channel possibilities of a life outside of the current paradigms. Working with youth and other creatives throughout the years motivates them to continue to bridge gaps between accessibility, wellness, and oppression through an intersectional environmentalism lens. The YCLC program sounded like an awesome opportunity to network, learn, and resource share with other like-minded individuals. During Jaelyn’s free time, she enjoys cooking local foods for loved ones, spending time at the river, reading religious and spiritual philosophy, and practicing intentional movement.They can be found on Instagram @huny.mother

My name is Janel (she/her). I am an alumna of Florida A&M University where I first gained experience advocating for food sovereignty, coalition building, and systemic shifts for more sustainable practices through academic and extracurricular activities. Since then, I’ve been involved with my local community in Miami-Dade County and gained perspective on the intersections of socioeconomics, health, and our local environments, while earning an M.S. in Environmental Science and Policy from Johns Hopkins University. I’m inspired by my community members who are working to create food sovereignty, housing, and environmental justice and fighting the bureaucratic battles necessary to create true social equity. I’m also inspired by a vision for a just green transition made possible by solidarity that creates the opportunity for holistic wellness for black and brown communities.These experiences in tandem, are a large part of what led me to this current project, Take Root. Take Root is an app designed to promote a green economy run by and for black and brown communities. The app is also meant to be a space that engages conversations around what health and wealth mean in our vision for tomorrow.

Jordan Salcido (she / her) is a multidisciplinary community organizer based in the Los Angeles area. Through a number of projects, she supports efforts to advance environmental justice and amplify community needs and priorities. She greatly believes in the power of storytelling and seeks to shine a light on community stories of strength and resilience. Recently, her work has focused on mentoring and supporting youth to take action in their community through documentary photography highlighting local leaders. Jordan is inspired by her community and applied to Youth Climate Leaders of Color to expand her network and to learn from a group of strong and thoughtful leaders. As a California naturalist, Jordan enjoys learning about the land and its plants, animals and people. Her favorite animal is a hummingbird but she has also come to love the sound of the flock of parrots that perch outside her window and screech to one another all summer long. Being surrounded by these sounds of nature in the middle of a busy city brings Jordan a lot of joy. Some of her other interests include scouring her local thrift stores for vinyl and knick knacks, having dance parties with her son and occasionally experimenting with new hobbies.

Josiah Edwards is a 22 year-old, youth climate justice organizer based in Los Angeles, CA. Having grown up in the South Bay of LA County near the largest refinery on the west coast, he experienced environmental racism in his daily life. Now, as a member of the Los Angeles chapter of Sunrise Movement, he works to uplift the voices of youth in frontline communities by training young people on the organizing methods and discipline needed to build mutli-racial, cross-class solidarity, a prerequisite to the power necessary to win a Green New Deal. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Common Dreams, and Democracy Now.Josiah applied to the Young Climate Leaders of Color program because he wanted an opportunity to meet and learn from peer leaders across the country who were doing similar work, while also learning ways to expand his own capacity to organize and build power. He enjoys spending his free time with his nieces, nephews, and little cousins, reading about organizing, and thinking about how to win.

Kadin Love is a 23 year old community organizer and activist from Hattiesburg, MS. In 2017 Kadin graduated from Ridgeland High School and continued his education at Hinds Community College in Raymond, MS where he studied psychology. While there he gained a broader understanding of how gender, class, and race intersect under the system of white supremacy. In 2019 he graduated from Hinds Community College with his Associate’s Degree and began attending the University of Southern Mississippi. It was also in 2019 that he began his work with Advocates for Youth as a member of their Student Organizing team. With AFY he traveled to Washington D.C. where he lobbied for the Real Education for Healthy Youth Act (REHYA) and the Global Health, Empowerment and Rights Act. In the midst of the national protests in 2020 Kadin began to work with the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) as a part of their national Freedom Summer campaign. During this campaign he worked alongside Rukia Lumumba and the People’s Advocacy Institute (PAI) to pressure the state legislature to pass Senate Bill 2123 which would have eased parole restrictions for nonviolent offenders during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was also during this period that Kadin joined the national Black organization BYP100 and began to work as a member of Color of Change PAC’s Mississippi leadership team, with whom he engaged in a variety of election protection work. In 2021 Kadin was asked to join Advocates for Youth’s Abortion Out Loud team where he engages in a variety of abortion-centered advocacy work, including planning protests, direct actions, and ensuring Mississippians have access to equitable and affordable abortion services. In 2022, Kadin and BYP100’s Jackson Chapter began work on a community project that centers on creating sustainable and self-sufficient communities in Mississippi.

Kalé Camara (they/them) is budding artist, farmer, visionary, and writer working on art and media that creates new possibilities and culture that centers love, care, interdependence, and freedom. They situate themself within Black feminist, Afrofuturist, surrealist, and trans liberation lineages and ways of being. Kalé gets out of bed every day to make the safety and joy of mad trans people like themselves more possible in all the ways they can.Kalé was a founding member of Rise! Upper Valley, a group of college students and local organizers who banded together in 2019 to organize for the safety, wellbeing, and freedom of Black, brown, and Indigenous, queer and trans, disabled and neurodivergent, and immigrant communities that they were a part of in the Upper Valley region of VT and NH. During its life Rise! focused on the crisis of ICE raids and deportations of migrant farmworkers and construction workers, working to raise awareness and build community knowledge through panels, rallies, and direct actions.Kalé has recently graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies with a special focus in Black feminism, the Black radical tradition, queer and trans liberation movements and theory, and performance studies.

Lenika Rivas (she/hers) is a recent graduate from Brown University, double concentrating in Environmental Science and Latin American and Caribbean Studies, focused on environmental policy processes. She was born and raised in Mesa, Arizona with roots in Sonora, Mexico, where both her parents immigrated from. Growing up low-income in the beautiful desert of Arizona has instilled a passion in her for environmental justice, advocacy for legislation concerning our climate, and public service work addressing social inequities. Aware of the toll environmental justice work can take on the minds and bodies of EJ practitioners, Lenika has found meditation and mindfulness tools to be at the core of her work. In trying to heal the hurt of the earth, we often engage with and encounter energy sources that are draining and harmful, in more ways than one. That is why in taking care of ourselves, we take care of the earth, and vice versa. Lenika's environmental advocacy has led her to facilitate justice-oriented science education workshops and outdoor leadership activities, understand the process of community healing after natural disasters, and work with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. Abroad, Lenika has taken courses aimed at understanding international relations and conflict resolution, studying the challenges of peacebuilding in Bogotá, Colombia, which supplemented her creative honors thesis on Latin American urban art and social mobilization.

My name is Lorraine Wangari (she/her) and I am a second-year biology major at the University of California, Los Angeles. I have done organizing my whole 4 years of high school, I mainly focused on issues relating to school issues. I wanted to expand my horizon and learn more about the ways that I could help when it comes to climate. Since I am in college, I do have a big audience to share my knowledge and to raise more awareness throughout the University. I would love to make an impact throughout California. Growing up as a low-income black female, I have faced a lot of discrimination and continuously do. This motivates me to be an organizer, to fight for little girls never to have to face injustice/discrimination. I am incredibly excited to be here and to make a change.

Lujain Al-Saleh (she/her) is a public health advocate based in Oakland, California. Since June 2021, Lujain has served as the East Oakland Clean Air Project Coordinator for Communities for a Better Environment, a California based environmental health and justice organization which promotes clean air and water and advocates for toxic-free communities. Over the past decade, Lujain has lived in the Bay Area and worked on a wide range of campaigns and projects to improve public health in Northern California, Guatemala, and Mexico. She also writes for KneeDeep Times, an online climate resilience magazine that features stories from the frontlines of the climate crisis. Lujain holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science & Management and minors in Professional Writing and Middle East & South Asia Studies from UC Davis and a Master of Public Health in Global Health & Environment from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. In her free time, Lujain enjoys swimming at her local community pool, spending time with family and friends, and is currently in the process of joining a community choir in Oakland.

My name is Mazzi Ingram (she/her), I am originally from Philadelphia and I am currently studying environmental studies at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. I am interested in environmental education and sustainable development, specifically in improving the ways in which Black people experience these things. What inspires me to do this work is my upbringing. Growing up in North Philly I was exposed to a lot of “risk factors” but I continuously found the outdoors being my outlet and safe space. As I got older, I began to become more aware of the causes of the “risk factors” I was exposed to such as systemic racism. I found that two of the two biggest issues impacting my community are the failing education system and gentrification. Because of my student leadership roles I was able to affect positive change around education equity and have been outspoken about the issue of gentrification. My access to the outdoors was heightened by my participation in a STEM leadership program for women at the Academy of Natural Sciences, called WINS. In this program I was exposed to the field of environmental justice and a community of women of color who’d also found refuge from city life in the limited green space we have.

My name is Melissa Cervantes (she/her) and I’m a fourth-year student at UC Berkeley majoring in Society & Environment and Conservation & Resource Studies. My academic interests revolve around environmental justice and agroecology, specifically looking at the nexus between environmental education and media. I enjoy hearing people’s narratives and believe it’s important to highlight the experiences of people who face environmental injustices or have survived a catastrophe; media is a powerful tool that can help engage and educate widespread audiences on these pressing issues.I grew up in the Napa Valley and this is where my passion for conservation and farmworker rights began. My family has a long relationship with farming, yet many of my family members face health disparities from working in the fields. My passion for studying agroecology stems from witnessing the socioeconomic challenges that come from working in the food industry, and how system-created access barriers to healthy foods affect people’s livelihoods. I have decided to take an extra year at Cal to complete an honors thesis where I will be doing a case study on the Farm to School Program in my hometown, and hope to create a short media piece highlighting the food service workers at NVUSD schools.

Miarri Phillips is currently a student studying both psychology and sociology. She is passionate about social justice and has an intense drive to create change in areas that she recognizes. Miarri is actively involved in both her communities, starting with Rochester, New York, to her Denver campus. Miarri was a Teaching Assistant and Cohort Coordinator for a Leadership Program at her previous institution. She has held several executive positions that educate others on the importance of active citizenship and civic engagement. She is notorious for her creative ideas and served as the Outreach and Engagement Chair for a nonprofit formerly known as Millennials 4 Environmental Justice.Phillips is also a Cities United Fellow alum taking a public health approach to gun violence. She was recognized as the 2021 Women of Color Environmental Leaders Move Mountains Grant Program in partnership with Greening Youth Foundation and The North Face. She is the founder of Green Goddess. Green Goddess creates a space for girls of color to be their authentic selves. Our mission is to provide emotional and social support for girls of color to develop identity, purpose, and community by providing and facilitating equitable and inclusive experiences in the outdoors.

I am a sister, doula, storyteller, and community health storytelling nerd. I author a newsletter titled Our Medicine which is a weekly exploration of love, storytelling, and rematriation. The focus is on Indigenous community building, personal and collective medicine, and a collection of beliefs grounded in love and togetherness as a means of surviving, thriving, and building a more sustainable world. Love, as we define it, is medicine. This writing is an exploration of the human tapestry of wisdom rooted in collective care. I am a steward of 2 acres of land in so-called Vermont. I am so delighted to be a part of this group to connect, organize, and build a more just world for all.

Nautica Jones is a disabled African American woman and scholar from Saint Martinville, La. She is pursuing a doctoral degree in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California Santa Cruz. Her graduate dissertation with Dr. Erika Zavaleta of the Conservation Science and Solutions Lab will investigate black ecological knowledge and its impact on the climate resilience of North America. Nautica draws on her memories of navigating major hurricanes, racism, and inaccessibility to ground her research endeavors. Nautica completed her Bachelor of Science in Biology with a concentration in ecology and evolution at the University of Louisiana Monroe. In her undergraduate thesis research with Dr. Joydeep Bhattacharjee of the Plant Ecology Lab, Jones assessed the diversity and abundance of native and invasive woody species within Louisiana’s “chenier” forests to understand their rapid decline. Nautica’s career goals are to support and create climate resilience plans for the underserved and to shift the narrative around black land relationships. Nautica hopes her work will impact the legal frameworks surrounding black peoples worldwide, specifically regarding indigeneity and the rights of displaced indigenous peoples. Nautica enjoys nature walks, food tours, and pageantry. Nautica has held chapter and district-level titles such as Miss Black and Gold 2022 for the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated and hopes to compete for Miss California in the future.

Riddhi S. Patel (they/them) holds a Bachelors in Neuroscience and is an abolitionist and grassroots organizer from Bakersfield California. They currently serve the community as the Economic Development Coordinator at the Center On Race, Poverty & the Environment. In this role they assist in leading the organization’s just transition work in the Central Valley which is historically one of California’s most carbon intensive regions. Additionally, they have been instrumental in connecting environmental justice issues within the intersectional framework of abolition and racial justice while doing the work to ensure the most impacted communities are served. Outside of the nonprofit sector they are a part of local grassroots abolitionist coalitions in Bakersfield that work to build a world without police or prisons. They were introduced to this work via the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign, co-founded a local Sunrise Movement Hub shortly following the campaign, and were soon radicalized after being introduced to local abolitionist leaders. They continue the work via love for their community, organizing mainly in their hometown where they were born and raised. They applied to the program because they believe that non-white youth are the best people to lead environmental justice work. They do not believe in respectability politics and enjoy the “burn it down and build a better world” energy non-white youth have always had for generations.

Born and raised in Hialeah, FL to Dominican parents, Samantha has always been passionate about building climate resilience in the face of fossil fuel-induced climate change. She works as a climate justice organizer for the Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility. Her work is primarily focused on supporting campaigns and coalitions advocating for climate justice through the lens of public health. Samantha also serves as board secretary of the Portland Harbor Community Coalition. She graduated from Lewis & Clark College with a Bachelor of Arts in Hispanic Studies and a minor in Environmental Studies. Climate justice is deeply personal for her because she is not seeing her people being invested in or protected. She comes to this line of work with the intention of co-creating a better future for everyone that is co-created by everyone. She is inspired every day by the amazing grassroots organizing happening all over the world. Samantha is excited to join the YCLC cohort because she has been looking to be a part of a space of young adults doing climate justice advocacy work. She is looking forward to learning from her peers about their organizing strategies, successes, and challenges. In her free time, she enjoys reading and baking recipes from her favorite chefs, Claire Saffitz and Sohla El-Waylly.

samar is a visionary freak, multidisciplinary artist, glitch, and heart led. They currently center their work as a member of the duo mirrored fatality. mirrored fatality is an underground interdependent Kapampangan and South Asian xenobinary experimental and healing noise queer punk farmer duo sharing their rituals + altars. mirrored fatality creates their “cocoon webs'' combining performance art, music, spoken word, film, photography, painting, drawing, upcycled garments, anti-imperialist education, and healing justice practice spaces to mobilize a warrior community responding to transnational calls-to-action for mutual aid, land sovereignty, and prison abolition. samar graduated from UCLA as a Magna Cum Laude Honors student in the Gender Studies, LGBT Studies, and Sociology departments and through Gender Studies they worked on the first collaborative Gender Studies Honors thesis called “Desi Muslim Kapampangan-Pilipinx Biomimicry Queer Femme Transmutations: Mirrored Fatality’s Cocoon Webs”. They have worked in prison abolition, land sovereignty, food justice, QTPOC organizing and programming, sexual violence advocacy, founded multimedia art collectives, host discussion spaces and workshops with orgs such as Dignity and Power Now, Vigilant Love, HEART Women and Girls, API Equality LA, UCSD SPACES, UCLA LGBT and RISE Center, and Amnesty International. They are inspired by the legacy of QTBIPOC resistance fighters who continue to pave new paths through all the rot and decay.

Shekinah Deocares (she/her) is an LA born and raised Filipina organizer. She grew up witnessing her parents and friends forced to repeateadly go up against discrimination based on immigration status and background, exploitation and mistreatment in the workforce, and systemic barred access from resources. She also saw this same community on the frontline of heat waves, toxins, and pollution while also and oftentimes climate refugees, even though they have championed sustainable practices and have not been the primary effectors of climate change. Shekinah is determined to support frontline communities in getting the resources and space to lead the EJ & CJ movement. Shekinah also loves mint chocolate chip ice cream, her dog Jeju, and roller skating.

My name is Summer Smith (she/her) I am from Montgomery, Al and I am 24 years old. I am currently a student at Auburn University at Montgomery as an English Major with a minor in Writing and Editing. I have a background in Molecular Biology and spent three years in the field of research. During that time, I have had many encounters with my local environment with the intent of discovering and studying endemic species of insects and other specimens. While conducting research, I became more interested in the preservation of the current biodiversity that is available in the state of Alabama. I became more aware and sensitive to the environment and the low quality of life of the plants and animals I researched. To right my own negligence of the environment, I began recycling, wasting less, and advocating for others to do the same, at least in my presence. Although I have made many changes to consider the environment, I would like to accomplish more. In the state of Alabama, it is not easy to recycle or to be environmentally conscious. I found this to be strange because of Alabama’s history of agriculture. Therefore I aim to assist Alabama in becoming more green and conscious of the bounty of biodiversity surrounding them.

Tammy VuPham is a city parks commissioner and outdoor advocate. She became involved with local policymaking after her experiences as a family caretaker. Her human-centered design and social psychology background help Tammy improve community mobility and well-being through solutions in the built environment. She also works as a grantmaker to increase environmental education opportunities for young people across Washington state. By applying to the YCLC program, she hopes to connect with other underrepresented professionals in climate activism.You can find Tammy outside, working as a mountain guide when not sitting in public hearings. Her favorite assignments are teaching avalanche and snow science courses to BIPOC groups. She hopes to encourage more people of color to pursue professional outdoor work, especially in the winter.

Thalía Flores-Perez (they/them) is from The Bronx, New York, and currently serves as the Lead Environmental Coordinator to provide youth-led support on the Clean Air Green Corridor project at WHEELS with Futures Ignite in Washington Heights. As a Latinx/Xicanx New Yorker raised in Washington Heights and the Bronx, they recognized the environmental and educational inequities that communities of color – especially Black and Brown communities – face while living in New York City. This led them to attend and pursue a degree in Environmental Studies, Public Policy, and Cultural Studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, as a first-generation student with a background focused on urban ecological agriculture and environmental justice. They interned as a Farm Manager Assistant at the Hilltop Urban Gardens, a community-based organization in Tacoma, Washington (Puyallup). Thalía co-supported and organized produce for the Hilltop community and supported Black and Indigenous youth organizing. They returned home to New York City to provide culturally relevant environmental education through non-profit organizations like the Riverdale Neighborhood House and The Hort.

Zavia Jenkins (she/her) was born in Chesapeake, Virginia, and grew up along a salt marsh in Nassau County, Florida, in the Gullah/Geechee Nation. There, she often watched her community pray and honor the ancestors lost in the Middle Passage and witnessed her people's deep connection to the ocean, the land, and each other.Living on land inherited from her great-grandparents, with wildlife all around, further increased her interest in the environment, and that link between land, water, and culture largely influenced her decision to study marine science at Stetson University. While at Stetson, she interned with the St. Marys Riverkeeper and conducted her senior research in the Volusia Blue Spring. She also studied audio engineering and production. In 2020, she graduated from Stetson University with a bachelor's degree in Aquatic and Marine Biology and a minor in digital arts.Following graduation, she worked as an archivist for the Gullah/Geechee Nation and since then has enjoyed her roles as a fellow for various environmental organizations including YECA, Faithful Climate Action, Thriving Earth, and Ocean Conservancy. Through these fellowships, Zavia has collaborated with different communities to address climate change and currently analyzes policies that can help conserve natural resources. Zavia continues drawing on her cultural foundation as she works to combine her interests in science and music to study acoustic ecology and highlight the important connection between cultural and natural soundscapes.

Zora Uyeda-Hale (she/her) is a passionate leader, organizer, and creative from Albany, California. She is currently a first-year in UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources, double majoring in Society & Environment and Ethnic Studies. Before college, her activism journey started in highschool, centered around education.Zora is deeply passionate about anti-racist education, which she believes is a crucial component of environmental justice. Zora is the co-founder and former district lead of AUSD Diversify Our Narrative, an organization dedicated to anti-racist and diverse education throughout her local school system. She has been instrumental in several district initiatives and has helped raise over $10,000 for purchasing diverse curricula. She now works for DON’s National Communications Team, advising chapters all over California. In high school, Zora was also a core group member of AHS Speak, a student group that gives presentations to all fifth-graders in the district on topics like racism, privilege, and intersectionality. Additionally, Zora was an intern at the SF Asian Art Museum, team captain of the Girls' varsity basketball team, and active in her Buddhist temple community. Zora’s list of environmental interests is constantly growing. Right now, she’s intrigued by the relationship between Indigenous land rematriation and Black reparations; circular economies; sustainable and affordable housing; and environmental publishing.