EJ Disrupt Design ADVISORY COMMITTEE (2024-26)
Jade Begay
Jade Begay, Diné and Tesuque Pueblo, is an Indigenous rights and climate justice organizer, narrative strategist, and filmmaker. Jade has partnered with organizations and Tribal Nations from the Arctic to the Amazon to develop strategies, create stories, and build campaigns to mobilize engagement and impact around issues like climate change, Indigenous self-determination, and environmental justice. Jade is the former Climate Justice Campaign Director at NDN Collective and serves on White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
Veronica Coptis
Veronica Coptis joined the CCJ staff in March 2013 as a Community Organizer and is now serving as the Executive Director. She grew up in southwestern Pennsylvania near the largest underground coal mine in the country and currently lives near the boom of fracking. Before joining the CCJ staff, Veronica served on the Board of Directors for CCJ and organized with the Mountain Watershed Association. She received a bachelor’s degree in biology from West Virginia University. She is a mother of two kids which makes the fight for a healthy world a critical focus for her. She enjoys hiking and geocaching with her husband and daughters.
Cami D. Egurrola
Cami D. Egurrola is a 22-year-old environmental and portrait photographer from the island of Guam.
Before starting as a freelance photographer, videographer, & social media manager, Cami attributes and credits her understanding of mass media to her 3 years at KUAM News/Communications as a Digital Producer and Host.
Now, she has taken that experience and combined it with her desire to tell stories through photography and videography. With Micronesia Climate Change Alliance she worked as the host, videographer, and editor (alongside her partner Franceska De Oro) for the digital series, “From Our Nånas, For Our Nenis”. The series focuses on food systems, the plastic crisis, sustainability, local produce, waste reduction and wellness. Cami’s current project, “Kulu’’” which is the conch shell in Chamoru, helps young storytellers enhance their digital media skills to advance climate action in Micronesia.
Rahwa Ghirmatzion
Rahwa Ghirmatzion was born in Asmera, Eritrea in the middle of a civil war. She came to Western New York as a refugee at the age of eight with her family, after living in Sudan. She was educated in Buffalo Public Schools and SUNY at Buffalo.
In 2018, Rahwa became executive director of PUSH Buffalo, a community organization that works at the grassroots to create and implement a comprehensive revitalization plan for Buffalo’s West Side, with more than $70 million invested in affordable housing rehabilitation, solar installation, green jobs training, weatherization and green infrastructure. Ghirmatzion oversees the organization’s programs and day-to-day operations, which have grown to include housing construction, weatherization, solar installation, job training, and a youth center on Grant Street, as well as outreach and advocacy on public policy on climate justice, housing justice and social issues facing urban communities.
Ghirmatzion’s greatest accomplishment to date is being a mom to a beautiful and joyful Black boy.
Jacqui Patterson
Before leaving to find The Chisholm Legacy Project: A Resource Hub for Black Frontline Climate Justice Leadership, Jacqueline was the Senior Director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program. Since 2007 Patterson has served as coordinator & co-founder of Women of Color United. Jacqui Patterson has worked as a researcher, program manager, coordinator, advocate and activist working on women‘s rights, violence against women, HIV&AIDS, racial justice, economic justice, and environmental and climate justice. Patterson served as a Senior Women’s Rights Policy Analyst for ActionAid where she integrated a women’s rights lens for the issues of food rights, macroeconomics, and climate change as well as the intersection of violence against women and HIV&AIDS. Previously, she served as Assistant Vice-President of HIV/AIDS Programs for IMA World Health providing management and technical assistance to medical facilities and programs in 23 countries in Africa and the Caribbean. Patterson served as the Outreach Project Associate for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Research Coordinator for Johns Hopkins University. She also served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Jamaica, West Indies.
For more information, please contact Marouh Hussein, Director of Impact and Learning.
Email: husseinm@newschool.edu
Supported By:
The Tishman Environment and Design Center is committed to working with movement artists. Our creatives are central to our stories.