EJ Disrupt Design Fellowship leadership and staff
PEDAGOGICAL/MONITORING INNOVATION EVALUATION AND LEARNING (MIEL) LEADERSHIP
Viveka Chen
Lead Curriculum Advisor
Viveka Chen is an organizational development consultant, certified coach, facilitator and trainer. For 30 years she has worked for social, racial, economic, environmental, reproductive and gender justice. She specializes in guiding transformational processes: race equity, social innovation, culture change, conflict resolution, team and alliance building, vision and strategy, leadership transition. She also designs and facilitates leadership cohort programs with QTBIPOC (queer, transgender, black, indigenous people of color) movement activists. Viveka brings a strengths-based approach, a commitment to liberation and joy, and a deep grounding in emotional, healing, and mindfulness practices drawing from her training as a Buddhist meditation teacher. She is currently in Somatic coach training.
Angela Mahecha
Director
Angela Mahecha is a Climate Justice leader originally from Colombia. She was previously the Executive Director of the Climate Justice Alliance, where she centered the national influence of 74 frontline urban and rural alliances, movement-support organizations, and base-building grassroots groups to move forward a Just Transition and Just Recovery. She has served as a leader of multiple organizations including: It Takes Roots, the Rising Majority, La Via Campesina North America, US Food Sovereignty Alliance, the Rural Coalition, Friends of People Affected by Dams from Brazil, and the Green New Deal National Network. As a natural weaver, she facilitates relationships between sectors such as greens, philanthropy, and now academia, with those on the frontlines. In her advisory roles with partners like the Mosaic Fund and others, she has been able to move millions to the grassroots. Angela splits her time between New Jersey and Florida with her two kids, partner, and the occasional manatee.
Marouh Hussein, MPA
Director of Impact and Learning
Marouh is the Impact and Systems Manager for the EJ Disrupt Design Fellowship. In her role, she leads the organizational and programmatic monitoring, innovation, evaluation, and learning activities for the Fellowship. Prior, she was a Community Coaching Manager at Partnerships for Parks, where she provided tailored organizational development support to green space community organizations across NYC. Marouh got her start in the environmental and food justice movement as an intern with Project Harmony, Inc., and also previously held a position with Global Cities, Inc., a program of Bloomberg Philanthropies, promoting global sustainability education. She has an MPA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a BA in Environmental Studies from SUNY Stony Brook. Marouh is a native New Yorker with no shortage of Uptown pride. During her time off can be found volunteering at a beautiful community garden in Harlem.
OPERATIONS LEADS
Taylor griggs
Operations and Events Manager
Taylor Griggs (she/her) manages the day-to-day operations of the EJ Disrupt Design Fellowship. Taylor comes to The New School with nearly a decade of experience implementing administrative systems for mission-aligned nonprofit and philanthropic organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. In her most recent roles, she served as the Administrative Coordinator for Mosaic, a participatory grantmaking initiative investing in movement infrastructure for environmental justice groups. She also served as Executive Assistant to the President at the Akonadi Foundation in Oakland, CA and supported the foundation’s initiatives to invest in racial justice organizing & policy advocacy
Taylor is a native of Richmond, CA and holds a BA in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Taylor is also an avid theater patron, producer and blogger who reviews culturally competent theatrical productions (Regional, Off-Broadway, Broadway) from coast to coast.
Patricia Cortado
Program and Communications Associate
Patricia Cortado is the Program and Communications Associate of the EJ Disrupt Design Fellowship, a storyteller, strategist, and community archivist amplifying grassroots movements. A queer Filipina immigrant from Newark, NJ, her work lives at the intersection of environmental justice, culture, and collective memory, ensuring stories of resilience and resistance are not just told but deeply felt.
Through Kapwang Tao Media LLC, Patricia has collaborated with Ironbound Community Corporation, Down Bottom Farms, and the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance to center frontline narratives in multimedia storytelling. She has led impactful social media campaigns advocating for housing, environmental, and food justice while bridging the gap between storytelling and movement-building.
At the EJ Disrupt Design Fellowship, Patricia has designed and curated content for the EJ Disrupt Design Community, uplifting the voices of artists, performers, ceremony leaders, and cultural organizers across Turtle Island, Borikén, and the Mariana Islands. As a photographer, she specializes in portrait, event, and lifestyle photography that centers community and joy, documenting moments of resistance, celebration, and collective care.
For Patricia, communication is stewardship—honoring the voices that came before and amplifying those rising now. Rooted in justice, community, and the futures we dare to imagine, she weaves narratives that don’t just inform but transform, shaping a media landscape where frontline communities define their own legacies.
Adrienne Perovich, MPA
Managing Director
Adrienne is responsible for managing collaborative research and special projects the Tishman Center undertakes with external partners. She also oversees the day-to-day operations of the Center, fundraising initiatives and Center finances. Before coming to the Tishman Center, Adrienne served as Program Manager at Seedco, managing their housing counseling program and assisting with their work supports initiative. Prior to Seedco, she worked at The Posse Foundation and founded the first NYC Chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby. Adrienne has an MPA from NYU’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service and a BA from SUNY at New Paltz.
CO-CREATORS
Dr. Ana Baptista, PhD
Co-Creator
Dr. Baptista is an Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in the Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management Program. She is also an Associate Director of the Tishman Environment and Design Center. She has nearly two decades of work within the EJ movement and her research and professional practice focuses on environmental justice policies and community based strategies for tackling environmental injustice. Dr. Baptista’s research extends to a wide range of issues; zero waste and anti-incineration, climate justice, urban air pollution mitigation policies, and the impacts of the global goods movement.
Dr. Sujatha Jesudason, PhD
Co-Creator
Dr. Sujatha Jesudason is a Professor of Professional Practice in Management. For more than 25 years, Dr. Jesudason has worked as an activist, organizer, and scholar in a range of social justice movements and is a leading voice in movement building with a focus on race, gender, innovation, and human genetics. A serial start-up leader, she was the Executive Director of CoreAlign, a reproductive justice organization teaching innovation for social change to frontline activists, which she founded in 2012.
ADVISORS
ej advisory committee
We want to thank our 2021-2023 Advisory Committee, Environmental Justice leaders from across the country, for receiving the role in helping us build something impactful and meaningful to the EJ frontlines and leadership.
For more information on the Advisory Committee, please click here.
INSTITUTIONAL HOSTS
Tishman Environment and Design Center
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.