Environmental & Social Justice

Fellow Story

Gutierrez to speak on environmental justice and river restoration in Puget Sound

Dr. Grant Gutierrez will present Environmental Justice and River Restoration in Puget Sound on March 2, 2023 as part of the Environmental Speaker Series hosted by the College of the Environment at Western Washington University. The series...
December 14, 2022
Fellow Story

Gaillard analyzes equity in statewide electric vehicle rebate programs

Isa Gaillard found that rather than simply focusing on market transformation & the acceleration of EV adoption, state leaders and administrators must prioritize affordability and accessibility.
December 8, 2022
Fellow Story

Landback in California with Brittani Orona

This in-depth conversation with Dr. Brittani Orona (Hupa, Hoopa Valley Tribe) on the Cal Ag Roots WELL podcast digs into the concept and practice of the Landback movement in California, including the deep history of Native resistance in the state. It also explores Brittani’s background and new role at San Diego State University.
November 23, 2022
Fellow Story

In Puerto Rico, Activists Transform Abandoned Land To Build Food Sovereignty

Luis Alexis Rodríguez Cruz writes about how in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, activists have turned abandoned land into a community garden. They say El Huerto is only the beginning.
October 6, 2022
Fellow Story

José Guadalupe Gutierrez: Designing Green Spaces for Equity and Community

As a child José regularly visited family in Mexico, where they had abundant natural space to explore, but he was disappointed in the lack of safe parks to play in when he would return to Los Angeles. As a community organizer, he saw the value of quality greenspace to working class communities. These experiences ultimately led him to pursue a career as a landscape architect working to advance park equity.
September 28, 2022
Fellow Story

Historic environmental justice victory to phase out oil and gas wells in LA

This spring, Zully Jaurez took a deeper dive into how frontline communities in Los Angeles, a city built on the world’s largest urban oil field, mobilized and ultimately won a ban on new oil drilling and begin phasing out existing wells in their city.
July 27, 2022
Fellow

Nishaila Porter

2022 Fellow
Nishaila studies urban resilience and the interdisciplinary role of policy. With experience in green infrastructure, she explores climate adaptation that prioritizes environmental justice. As a recent Revolutionary Power Fellow, she assisted with the Justice40 Initiative to ensure 40% of benefits flowed to disadvantaged communities nationally.
Fellow

David Herrera

2022 Fellow
David is researching how the community organizing strategies of two environmental justice organizations in Oakland and San Diego get air pollution issues onto their local government’s policy agendas. He is an environmental justice advocate and mentor for students of color.
Fellow

Gabriela Rodriguez

2022 Fellow
Inspired by her upbringing as a Latina and by the natural environments of Miami, FL, Gabriela works to center social equity in the clean energy transition by advancing equitable community engagement in decision-making around climate change to ultimately drive community power and support a Just Transition.
Fellow

Liz Jacob

2022 Fellow
Liz Jacob (she/her) is working to build a practice of community-based lawyering alongside movements for a just transition. Liz is dedicating her life to working in community to collectively dream and build a transformative new world grounded in mutual aid, justice, and equity so that all people and the planet can thrive. Liz is a recent graduate of Yale Law School and will be serving as a Skadden fellow with the Sugar Law Center for Social and Economic Justice and the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, where she will serve as an environmental justice lawyer to advance environmental, climate, and energy justice alongside communities of color and low-income residents in Detroit, Michigan.