Isa Gaillard

Isa is a Program Manager at the Greenlining Institute, where he is developing a community of practice that is focused on scaling transportation electrification and equitable mobility policy across the country. He recently graduated with a Master's of City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley with a concentration in Environmental Planning and Healthy Cities. He is passionate about addressing the fact that pollution, climate change, and urbanization disproportionately harm certain communities. Prior to moving to Berkeley, Isa studied public policy at the University of Michigan and worked with Native American communities across the state, developing an interest in indigenous perspectives and practices in relation to sustainability. While at Michigan, Isa received a Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award for his efforts engaging with diverse communities to promote cross-cultural collaboration. As a Graham Sustainability Scholar, he developed a proposal to combat university carbon emissions by planting old-growth trees in a permaculture system. Upon moving to the Bay Area, Isa completed an Environmental Justice Fellowship at the Center for Environmental Health based out of Oakland. He then worked on regional transportation issues and safe routes to schools programs at TransForm, a transportation planning and land-use management non-profit. As a Masters student, he interned with the San Francisco Planning Department and worked with advocacy groups, city planners, and policymakers to design a framework for integrating environmental justice into the city’s General Plan. He completed his Master's work by writing a Client Report for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, considering how cities and counties can leverage air quality legislation and community engagement in their efforts to incorporate environmental justice into their planning process.