Ripe for creative disruption ej fellows

Group Won

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.

Maria Lopez-Nunez

Maria Lopez-Nunez is a first generation Catracha, from Newark, New Jersey serving as the Deputy Director of Organizing and Advocacy of Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC). She played a key role in the passage of the landmark Environmental Justice Bill (EJ Bill; S232). This bill helps the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection assess the public health and environmental risks that the renewing or expanding facilities would bring into our communities in New Jersey. She was one of the leaders of the Compassionate New Jersey Coalition, which fought to prevent evictions and foreclosures and to keep all New Jerseyans safe in their homes during the COVID 19 crisis. Maria is on the board of the Climate Justice Alliance, The ROOTS Project, The New Jersey Civic Information Consortium and was recently appointed to serve on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council by President Biden.

Dwaign Tyndal

Dwaign has over twenty-five years of professional experience in economic development, community and neighborhood development, youth development and workforce development. Throughout his professional experience, Dwaign has effectively led capable and diverse teams and has also been able to communicate complex public policies to various stakeholders to show how community-based partnerships can build stronger communities and empower residents and businesses to take active roles in their neighborhoods.

Miya Yoshitani

Miya Yoshitani has recently transitioned to Senior Strategist after serving as the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network since 2013. Starting at APEN as a youth organizer in the 1990’s, Miya has an extensive background in community organizing, and a long history of working in the environmental justice movement. She was a participant in the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991, and was on the drafting committee of the Principles of Environmental Justice. APEN has been fighting – and winning – environmental justice struggles for the past 28 years and remains one of the most unique organizations in the country explicitly developing the leadership and power of poor and working class Asian American immigrant and refugee communities at the intersection of racism, poverty and pollution in California.

Las Jotas

Julio Morales

Julio Morales (b. 1981, Santurce, Puerto Rico) I am an illustrator, sculptor, actor, graphic designer, and director who has performed and organized various artistic, theatrical, and cultural events since 2004. I have a bachelor's degree in drama from the University of Puerto Rico specialized in the techniques of the theater of the oppressed of Augusto Boal and the Teatro Pobre de America which both of these techniques use theater as a tool for revolutionizing oppressed communities.

In 2005, I became one of the founding members of the theater company Y no había luz which has produced a large repertoire of original theater pieces and educational and community workshops for which it has become nationally and internationally renowned. The collective is proud of its horizontal internal organization and its authentic way of combining theater, film, dance, music, masks, puppets, and the plastic arts into playful yet profound performances.

Juan E. Rosario Maldonado

Juan E. Rosario Maldonado was born in 1950 in a low-income community in Caguas, Puerto Rico among solidarity, love, and care. Within hardships through the years, there was no sense of misery among them. No one went hungry to bed and the community looked out for each other.

Juan has been involved with his community since he was a child. And in 1969, he decided to quit his first year in University to move and work in an Afro-American community in the South part of Chicago. After the Democratic Convention, the assassination of Martin Luther King, and the trial of the 7 of Chicago, he experienced nothing short of a rebirth. He had to stay active in his communities.

Juan is with the Alliance for Sustainable Resources Management (AMANESER 2025)- a network of grassroots organizations to promote sustainability in Puerto Rico. They support local communities with the organizational and material resources to improve their resiliency.

Jesús Juan Vázquez Negrón

Jesús Juan Vázquez Negrón is a Puerto Rican organizer, advocate, popular educator and activist that works in the intersections of environmental justice, agroecology, food sovereignty and climate justice at the national and international level. He has been working collectively for the past 12 years with rural, urban and coastal communities organizing mutual support efforts, political education workshops, dialogues, capacity trainings and just recovery initiatives with family farms and communities where people work and live. He is the National Coordinator of Organización Boricuá of Ecological Agriculture of Puerto Rico, a 32 year old national grassroots organization composed by farmers, peasants, farm workers, and food sovereignty activists that promote and practice agroecology as a tool to achieve food sovereignty and social justice on the archipelago. He works and collaborates internationally in CLOC, LVC, PAP, USFSA & CJA.

Sankofa Souls

Dr. Boston

My belief in family and community and in community as a family and working to make this concept live guides my movement work. I am concerned with public health and as co-founder of the Tallahassee Food Network, our mission is to grow community-based good food systems that provide healthy, green, fair, and accessible food for all. Our environmental justice work is rooted in collective work and responsibility and I am dedicated to the building of a better people and a better world. I use participatory processes, to collect and share community stories on our public health challenges. I was involved in an National Environmental Policy Act campaign. I am an artist and use art, culture and tradition to move people to action. The #shekeremovementforjustice initiative welcomes spiritual energy into our Movement. I teach West African dance and I made a kayak. Family is important to me, my motto is, "little by little a bird builds it's nest" and my favorite song is, "People Get Ready!"

Rachel Jefferson

Ms. Rachel Jefferson, Executive Director of Groundwork Northeast Revitalization Group, was born in Kansas City, Missouri and attended Miss. Porter’s School in Farmington, CT, for high school and spent a year abroad in Beijing, China. After graduation, Rachel attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Rachel was awarded the 2011 Neighborhood Leadership Award and the 2019 Yes She Can! Conference Women of Wyandotte Award. Rachel is the 2019 Thrive KCK Community Champion Honoree, and a 2021 Pinnacle Prize semi-finalist. Rachel serves as a member of the MERC Co-Op Board of Directors, is appointed to the Kansas City, Kansas Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and is a gubernatorial appointee to Citizen’s Utility Ratepayer Board.

Rachel’s time as a community advocate cemented her understanding of the socio-economic struggles that hinder good health among BIPOC populations and ignited her passion to support the growth of human, social, and civic capacity at the grassroots level.

Melissa Miles

Melissa Miles (she/her) is an Environmental and Climate Justice advocate who began her career in the field as a grassroots activist and community organizer while living in an Environmental Justice community in Newark, New Jersey. She is currently the Executive Director of the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance and holds leadership on the NJ Environmental Justice Advisory Council, the NJ/NY Coalition for Healthy Ports, the Moving Forward Network and Building Equity and Alignment for Environmental Justice. Melissa holds an MA in Cultural Anthropology from The New School, and is a polyglot mother of two with a love for anime and the outdoors.

Taylor Thomas

Taylor (she/they) calls Long Beach home, where she was born and raised and continues to deepen her roots. Having had an incredibly gracious grandmother as an example, and raised in an under-resourced community, she has been involved in various community-based efforts since the age of 15. She has supported organizing for quality and affordable education, as well as worked with folks experiencing homelessness. With the guidance and support of Great Leap and EndOil, Taylor, along with four other community members, co-wrote and performed a theater play called ‘The Air We Breathe’ in 2013, which chronicled what it’s like living in Long Beach and dealing with air pollution. She began her journey with EYCEJ as a member shortly thereafter, eventually becoming an intern before transitioning into a staff role. Taylor aims to combine art, sustainability, compassion, and social justice into a movement of love. Taylor was EYCEJ’s Research and Policy Analyst, but now serves as a Co-Director.

Bridgers

Valerie J. Amor

Valerie J. Amor, LEED AP BD+C, CPHD, EcoDistricts AP, CC-P, LFA, PhD student, focuses on developing regenerative, environmentally just and equitable designs and policies addressing climate change impacts on coastal urban cities through published writings, educational programs, community engagement and professional leadership positions.

Ms. Amor is the founder of Drawing Conclusions LLC, an architectural firm, engaged in regenerative design, helical research, and the designer of SCALe©, an educational design charette program. Receiving several National Endowment of the Arts grants as a community engagement public artist, Ms. Amor is the co-founder of Growing Broward, supporting local food systems. Serving as a Climate Corps Environmental Defense Fund Fellow consultant to the New York City Housing Authority, Ms. Amor was instrumental in contributing to and implementing several South Florida city and regional Sustainability Action Plans.

Teron McGrew

Teron McGrew, M.S., Ph.D. Candidate is a native of Oakland, California. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Behavioral Science (1989) and a Master of Science (1991) in Urban and Community Development from the University of California Davis. She is a Ph.D. Candidate in Urban Planning from the University of California Los Angeles.

Born into a family of real estate developers, and educators, Ms. McGrew, is the CEO of McGrew & Associates, a regenerative housing and community development company, with a focus on climate justice and climate adaptation.

Ms. McGrew is the community engagement manager at the West Oakland Environmental Indicator Project (WOEIP), and a member of the NAACP Center Equity in the Building Sector Environmental & Climate Justice Program (CESBS). She has one married son.

Alice Sung

Alice Sung, AIA, LEED AP, BD+C, SEA, is a mother, architect, green building/sustainability professional, and first gen Asian American climate justice change agent. She has been a longtime champion of high performance, zero carbon public K-14 school districts. Her work has focused on prioritizing the health, environmental, economic, and educational benefits of green schools, especially within communities most impacted. She has also advocated for energy democracy, building decarbonization, and environmental justice for children and other vulnerable communities in her work before public agencies, and led many green building sector-related organizations for over 2 decades.

She holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in architecture from MIT and UC Berkeley, as well as credentials in the field of sustainability. Alice was awarded the 2018 ZNE Leadership, Individual Award, sponsored by new buildings institute, and is an alum of the Women’s Earth Alliance 2020 U.S. Grassroots Accelerator Program.

Working with the NAACP Centering Equity in the Sustainable Buildings Sector, together with a broad network of partners, Alice seeks to bridge technical climate solutions to center equity: from public policy and organizational or systems change, to co-creating program design and local implementation, in order to leverage a sustainable, Just Transition towards an equitable, resilient, zero carbon future for all of us.

Climate Aunties

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 Climate Justice Campaign Director at NDN Collective and serves on White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.

Kailea Frederick

Kailea Frederick (she/her), NDN Collective Climate Justice Organizer, is a mother of Tahltan, Kaska and Black American ancestry. She grew up in Maui, Hawai`i and feels raised by quiet spaces and intimately tied to Honua, our island earth. She is a graduate of the International Youth Initiative Program and a Spiritual Ecology and Boards & Commissions Leadership Fellow. Kailea has been a returning delegate to the United Nations Climate Change Conferences and currently serves on the Petaluma Climate Action Commission and as the Editor for Loam. Her prayer is that those on the front-lines of climate change and extractive based industry are able to find justice and peace for their communities.

Lemmai Loves

Rep. Sheila Babauta

Sheila Babauta is passionate about contributing to a brighter Marianas. She gained the trust and confidence of her community, and is serving her fourth year in the CNMI House of Representatives. She believes that responsible management of our natural resources is essential to improving our quality of life in the Marianas and ensuring future generations have access to these resources. She aims to promote policies that preserve biodiversity, support ecological balance, and encourage the sustainable management of our resources to contribute to the long-term economic development. Her longstanding commitment to service is evident through her leadership development priorities and involvement with non-profit organizations that aim to empower communities and advocate for environmental justice. She is an enthusiast at heart, loves exploring the jungles while training her rescue dog, Chief and envisions sharing a TedTalk of her own one day.

Moñeka De Oro

Moñeka De Oro is an indigenous CHamoru mother, climate/peace activist, educator and dedicated community organizer based in the Mariana Islands. She is a former Just Transition Fellow with Climate Justice Alliance, where she co-coordinated community based solutions with member organization Micronesia Climate Change Alliance. She is deeply involved in efforts uplifting the experiences of Pacific Islanders on the front lines of the climate crisis. She has wide academic, professional and volunteer experiences in social justice, historic preservation, environmental protection and cultural perpetuation.

Cami D. Egurrola

Cami D. Egurrola is an 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 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.

Jasmine (Mina) Flores-Cantrell

Guahu si Jasmine (Mina) Flores-Cantrell, an ecopreneur, educator, and native daughter of the island of Guåhan advocating for just solutions to the current extractive economy through an ecological lens. She holds firm beliefs in sustainable education and mission-driven work to build a regenerative, equitable, and safe future for all.

Mina is the founder of Numa'lo Refillery, Guahån's first zero waste store helping the community to divert its single-use plastic waste. She currently sit as a board member of Micronesia Climate Change Alliance, a local non-profit driven to provide community solutions to mitigate climate change. She also a committee member of the Our Power Loan Fund through Climate Justice Alliance. Her greatest hope is to provide security and climate justice to the Mariana Islands and to see future generations thrive off the stewardship of our lands.