Event

Diandra Marizet Esparza

Executive Director, Intersectional Environmentalist

Diandra Marizet Esparza (She/Her) is an organizational development strategist, published writer, poet and co-founder of Intersectional Environmentalist, where she currently serves as the Executive Director. Diandra’s work seeks to help environmentalists everywhere recognize culture as an expression of relationship to land. Her work advocates for the accessibility of diverse stories for rising generations. Diandra is a contributing writer in the academically adopted book The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet

Paolo Solano

Director, Legal Affairs and Submissions on Enforcement Matters Unit

The Director of Legal Affairs and Submissions on Enforcement Matters (SEM) at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Paolo Solano is a lawyer trained in Mexico with over 15 years of experience in the field of international environmental law. His responsibilities at the CEC pertain to the implementation of the SEM process under NAFTA/USMCA-CUSMA and also include advising on operational and legal matters of the CEC more generally.

Paolo obtained his law degree from the Faculty of Law at the National University of Mexico (UNAM), a master’s degree on environmental governance from University of Essex (awarded with honors); a diploma on US law from the Georgetown Law Center, and graduate studies on Business Management and Canadian Law at the University of Montreal.

Paolo has also been a visiting law professor in the United States and Mexico and has published academic articles and a book chapter. Since 2008 he has published the annual report for the Yearbook of International Environmental Law and, as of 2015, also reports on the development of environmental law in Mexico.

Aliénor Rougeot

Program Manager, Climate and Energy, Environmental Defence Canada

Aliénor (Allie) Rougeot is a Franco-Canadian climate justice activist based in Toronto. She currently serves as a Climate and Energy Program Manager at Environmental Defence Canada, where she advocates for an energy transition that is fair for workers and communities. She previously co-founded and led the group Fridays for Future Toronto during her time as an economics student at the University of Toronto.

Amanda M. Hauff

Senior Advisor on Environmental Justice, Office of International and Tribal Affairs, US Environmental Protection Agency

Amanda M. Hauff is a Senior Advisor on Environmental Justice for EPA’s Office of International and Tribal Affairs. Throughout her career, she has managed Tribal, international, children’s health and environmental justice programs for EPA. She developed the first strategic plan for the Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice to establish a framework for accountability to improve the health, quality of life, and economic opportunities for overburdened communities. She also advanced EPA’s progress on equity and environmental justice by developing federal policies, programs, scientific conceptual models, and indicators to implement environmental justice principles into EPA’s actions.

Erika Hernández Mariaca

Co-founder, Collective Cuentepec Tosepan

Erika Hernández Mariaca is a woman from the Nahua Indigenous people of Cuentepec, Morelos, Mexico, and an activist. She is part of the Indigenous Futures Network, working on the construction and communication of narratives around the climate crisis. She is a co-founder of Cuentepec Tosepan, a collective dedicated to the defense of territory, and is a member of the Unification of Peoples and Colonies against Mining in Morelos. Currently, she specializes in environmental education from a popular approach with an intercultural perspective and in strengthening the Nahuatl language. She holds a degree in Social Work from the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos.

Naolo Charles

Founder, Black Environmental Initiative, and Co-founder, Canadian Coalition for Environmental and Climate Justice

Naolo Charles is the founder of the Black Environmental Initiative (BE Initiative) and the co-founder of the Canadian Coalition for Environmental and Climate Justice (CCECJ), a coalition that played a key role in the campaign for the first law to address environmental racism in Canada.

Holder of a Master’s degree in Environment, Naolo is a bilingual environmental communications and education specialist. During his master’s degree, Naolo studied the question of how governments and businesses can use the results of lifecycle assessments (LCA) to communicate the environmental and social impacts of everyday products with environmental labeling. He was also one of the experts on the Thriving Natural Environment Advisory table, brought together by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) to develop Canada’s first national adaptation strategy. Naolo regularly offers training on environmental justice and anti-racism. He is a life-long student of Black History and his work on environmental justice reflects it.

A first-generation immigrant in Canada, Naolo has created employment opportunities for dozens of Black and BIPOC youth in the environmental and social sectors and is committed to mentoring youth and supporting equity-deserving communities. He speaks at conferences, events, and to the media about environmental justice. Before starting BE Initiative and CCECJ, Naolo worked for over 10 years for various organizations, including foundations, universities, governments, and start-ups.

Josefa Sánchez Contreras

Hails from the Zoque Indigenous community of Chimalapa, Oaxaca, and is a researcher at the University of Granada.

With a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM), a master’s in Latin American studies from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and on leave from a position as a contract researcher in the Sociology Department at Universidad de Granada, Josefa Sánchez Contreras is currently a visiting scholar at the Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

In her academic work, Sánchez Contreras collaborates on various energy transition projects. She coauthored the book, Energy Colonialism: Sacrifice Zones for Energy Transition in Spain, Mexico, Norway and Western Sahara (Colonialismo energético: territorios de sacrificio para la transición energética en España, México, Noruega y el Sahara Occidental) (Icaira, 2023) and is the coordinator for the book Ever More Mokayas, The Thoughts and Feelings of Contemporary Zoques (Cada vez más Mökayas, pensares y sentires de zoques contemporáneos) (Ce-Acatl, 2022). She is also part of the Matza Collective, a group of Zoque indigenous people who defend the rivers and territory in the Chimalapas jungle, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Don Hardy

Mayor of Kinston, North Carolina, Chairman of North Carolina Mayors Association Board of Directors, Vice Chairman, National League of Cities, and Member of the African American Mayors Association

Mayor Dontario Hardy is currently the Mayor of the City of Kinston and has served since 2017. Mayor Hardy is a proud veteran of the United States Navy. He is also currently serving as a sworn law enforcement officer at the Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office and has worked at the local, county, and federal levels of law enforcement for over the past 17 years. Additionally, Mayor Hardy serves on the North Carolina Global Transpark Authority Board of Directors, North Carolina League of Municipalities Board of Directors, and National League of Cities Board of Directors. He is the Past Chairman of the NC Mayors Association, President of the North Carolina Black Elected Municipal Officials, and President of the Pitt-Greenville Lodge #69 Fraternal Order of Police. He is serving a second term as a Governor’s appointee to the North Carolina Governor’s Crime Commission, is a National Diversity Committee member at the National Fraternal Order of Police, and participates in numerous other boards and committees representing the City of Kinston as well as cities, towns, villages, and law enforcement officers across the state of North Carolina.

Chris Hawn

Co-Director of Research and Education, North Carolina Environmental Justice Network

Dr. Chris Hawn is with the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network and serves as their Co-Director for Research and Education. Dr. Hawn works with communities impacted by environmental racism and connects them to researchers, students, and teachers to create evidence-based advocacy and increase EJ competency in the classroom.

Prior to this role, Dr. Hawn was a professor of Geography and environmental systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, during which they created and critiqued participatory research to improve actionable research for EJ communities.

Dr. Hawn continues NCEJN’s legacy for finding unlikely collaborators to shift power for social justice. They founded the Spidey Sens-r project, where communities monitor air quality issues by collecting spider webs. Last year, they were honored with the Black and Green 40 Under 40 Award by the Black Millennials for Flint.

Elizabeth Campos Sanchez

Project Lead, Environmental Quality

Elizabeth Campos Sanchez has been a Project Lead at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation since 2021. Among other projects, she coordinates the Air Quality Improvement for Environmental Justice initiative. She holds a biology degree from the National University of Mexico (UNAM) and a master of science degree in natural resource management and rural development from El Colegio de la Frontera Sur. Her background includes working as an environmental consultant, providing technical review and editing, and facilitating environmental education workshops. Her experience incorporates working in transdisciplinary environments, community engagement and environmental research. She is interested in data visualization and democratization, as well as geospatial analysis. 

Danielle Vallee

Project Lead, North American PRTR Initiative

Danielle Vallée has worked with the Environmental Quality unit at the CEC since 2006. She leads the North American PRTR Initiative, a cornerstone effort of the CEC since 1994, and ensures the development and implementation of the Taking Stock Online website, Taking Stock report series, and various outreach activities. Danielle has over 25 years’ experience in managing international environmental projects that involve a strong public engagement component. She has a bachelor’s degree in geography and a master’s degree in public policy and administration (geography) from Concordia University in Montréal, Québec. 

Dr. Benjamin Chavis

Executive Director and Host, The Chavis Chronicles

Dr. Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr. (born January 22, 1948) in Oxford, North Carolina is an African American civil rights leader and icon, United Church of Christ (UCC) ordained minister, author, journalist, organic chemist, environmentalist, global entrepreneur, and currently President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) based in Washington, DC since 2014.

Dr. Chavis is the Executive Producer and Host of The Chavis Chronicles, www.TheChavisChronicles.com, broadcast weekly on PBS TV Network stations reaching over 90 million households throughout the United States. THE GOOD NEWS is a new nationally syndicated, daily radio commentary www.TheGoodNewsRadio.com  hosted by Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. powered by the Krantz Media Group, www.krantzmediagroup.com.

The Chavis family has been deeply rooted in the “freedom movement” in Granville County, North Carolina for over 250 years as landowners, farmers, educators, theologians, physicians, and activists. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr is the great, great, great-grandson of the Reverend John Chavis (1763–1838), the first Black American to attend Princeton University and the first Black American to be ordained as a Presbyterian minister in the United States (in 1799).

In his youth in the early 1960s, Chavis was the North Carolina statewide youth coordinator and Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) assistant to Martin Luther King Jr., who inspired him to work and to become a Christian minister in the civil rights movement across the United States, and to later to champion African liberation in Angola, Namibia, South Africa and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Chavis became an active supporter and associate of the African National Congress (ANC) led by Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela.

Chavis first attended Saint Augustine University (HBCU) in Raleigh, NC in 1965 and 1966 majoring in chemistry.  He transferred to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1967 and graduated with a BA in Chemistry in 1970. While in Charlotte, Chavis continued to work as a college student for SCLC and as a labor organizer for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

At the age of 24, Reverend Benjamin F. Chavis Jr rose to international prominence in 1972 as the leader of the Wilmington Ten in NC, civil rights activists who were “political prisoners” as designated by Amnesty International, and who were unjustly convicted of committing arson and sentenced to a combined total of 282 years in prison. The Wilmington Ten convictions and sentences were appealed and eventually overturned in 1980 by the US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals due to unconstitutional systemic racism and “prosecutorial misconduct.” During Chavis’ frontline foot-soldier civil rights career in the 1960s, 1970s, and in the1980s, he has been unjustly charged, arrested and jailed over 67 times, and in each case subsequently found not guilty or dismissed as unjustly charged.

Chavis returned to graduate schools in NC, DC and NY in the field of civil rights as a minister and a program director of the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice under the leadership of another mentor, the Reverend Dr, Charles E. Cobb, Sr, Chavis received the Master of Divinity (magna cum laude) from Duke University (1980) and a Doctor of Ministry from Howard University (1981). Chavis was admitted in 1982 into the PhD program in Systematic Theology as a graduate student at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and completed all of the academic course requirements in 1984.  Chavis was elected National Vice President of the National Council of Churches in 1988.

In 1993, the national board of directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) elected Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr as the youngest Executive Director and CEO of America’s oldest national civil rights organization.  In July of 1993, Chavis was proud to introduce The Honorable Nelson Mandela to speak in person at the NAACP national convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Benjamin Chavis actually began his journalistic career at the age of 11 while in the sixth grade at Angier B. Duke Elementary School in Oxford, NC.   Chavis wrote weekly news stories about Black youth activism for The Carolina Times, published by one of the leading members of the NNPA, Louis E. Austin, in Durham, NC.  From 1985 to 1993, Chavis authored and produced a weekly national commentary “Civil Rights Journal” for the NNPA, Jet Magazine, National Black Radio Network, and for the American Urban Radio Network.  Chavis has continued to write award-winning Op Eds, news features, and columns for the NNPA from 2003 to 2023.

In 1982, Dr. Chavis was the first person to coined the term environmental racism during environmental justice protests in Warren County, NC. Over the past four decades, Dr. Chavis has emerged as the “Godfather of the Environmental Justice Movement” that today has evolved into an effective worldwide movement for environmental and climate justice and equity.   

Dr. Chavis defined environmental racism as “racial discrimination in the deliberated targeting of ethnic and minority communities for exposure to toxic and hazardous waste sites and facilities, coupled with the systematic exclusion of minorities in environmental policy making, enforcement, and remediation.”

In 1986 Dr. Chavis conducted, co-authored and published the landmark national study: Toxic Waste and Race in the United States of America, that statistically revealed and substantiated the national correlation and causation between race and the location of toxic waste throughout the United States. In 1991, as Executive Director of the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, Dr. Chavis Co-Chaired, funded and organized the First People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington, DC that codified the Principles of Environmental Justice

In 1992–1993, Dr. Chavis served as a member of the Clinton-Gore Transition Team and later became an active member of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development.  Dr. Chavis was the National Director of the successful Million Man March on October 16, 1995, in Washington, DC., the largest African American event mobilization in the history of America.

In 2001, Dr. Chavis and Russell Simmons co-founded and organized the first National Hip-Hop Summit in New York City that led to establishment for the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN), www.HSAN.org the world’s largest international coalition of recording artists, producers, and entertainment industry leaders.  From 2001 to 2012, over 75 Hip-Hop Summits were held in NY, TX, CA, Il, MI, MD, PA, NJ, NC, GA, MO, IN, WI, VA, AL, Toronto, and Johannesburg.

Currently, Dr. Chavis also serves as the Co-Chair of No Labels; Chairman of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO); Chairman of the Thurgood Marshall Center Trust; and Co-Founder Chair Emeritus of Diamonds Do Good.

Dr. Chavis has four sons: Benjamin III, Franklin, John Mandela and Reginald Louis. He has four daughters are Michele, Paula, Renita, and Ana Elisabeth.  He is a grandfather and a great grandfather.

Iman A Berry

Co-Founder, Green Ummah and Migration and Climate Change Contact Point, Youth Constituency, UFCCC

Iman Berry is the co-founder of Green Ummah (GU), a federally registered non-profit focused on providing education related to environmental justice to young people all over Canada and the US. GU works with educators, nature guides, Indigenous communities, and scientists to develop school curriculums about environmental justice. In each classroom, the curriculum is taught, and students are brought on field trips to local nature areas to build relationships with the land. To date, GU has provided 1000s of students with this experience. In addition to GU, Iman has also worked to provide education about the relationship between climate and politics through lobbying, organizing political debates and education campaigns. Iman currently serves as the Migration and Climate Change Contact Point and as a part of the Global Coordination team for the youth constituency of the UFCCC. Iman was also one of the Canadian Youths chosen for the 2023 CEC Youth Engagement Week, where youth from all over North America developed a youth strategy.

Katia Forgues

Co-Director, Sustainable Youth Canada and member, ECCC’s Youth Council

Katia Forgues is a young scientist with a profound passion for nature, our relationship with it, and empowering youth and communities to become environmental leaders. She serves as the co-director of Sustainable Youth Canada, a youth-led non-profit advocating for increased youth involvement in policy and empowering students across Canada to launch environmental projects in their regions, and she is also a member of Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Youth Council.

With a Master’s degree in Biology from McGill University, Katia has been involved in diverse projects, such as weather monitoring in Northern Quebec with Cree communities, studying the impacts of climate change on berries that are traditionally harvested by the Innus, and working on reforestation and carbon offset initiatives in Panama with an Embera community. Her journey is fueled by a love for learning and a deep appreciation for the diverse perspectives of the people with whom she connects along the way.

Cameron E Oglesby

Environmental Justice Advocate and Storyteller

Cameron is an environmental justice organizer, oral historian, award-winning journalist, and a developing author who is dedicated to re-centering the voices, narratives, and knowledge of historically disinvested communities in conservation, environmental policy, storytelling, and corporate decision-making.

A double alumnus of Duke University (2021 and 2023), Cameron, in partnership with prominent leaders and movement icons, has spent her seven years in North Carolina working with university and community leaders to establish climate education initiatives, leverage institutional power, and report on the intersection of environmental racism, infrastructure and policy, and land and agriculture. Her journalism has appeared in The Nation, The Assembly NC, Atmos Magazine, Grist, Southerly, Yale Climate Connections, and Earth in Color. She is an advisory board member for the Rural Beacon Initiative, a member of the strategic planning committee of Warren County Environmental Action, and is the project lead for the Environmental Justice Oral History Project: a storytelling hub and repository that combines a diverse set of storytelling modalities to provide a comprehensive view of environmental justice in the southern US.

She is also a National Geographic Young Explorer, 2024 Aspen Institute Future Leader Climate Fellow, Covering Climate Now’s 2023 Student Journalist of the Year Awardee, a 2023 NAAEE Environmental Education 30 Under 30 Leader, and a 2022 Yale/Op-Ed Project Public Voices Fellow on the Climate Crisis.

Cameron’s work is inspired by her own connection to ancestral farmland in Maryland that has been in her family for almost 100 years.

Colton Buckley

Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils and Administrator, EPA National Environmental Youth Advisory Council

Colton Buckley serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils (NARCDC), a national nonprofit organization comprising over 180 RC&D Councils across nearly 40 states, committed to advancing agricultural and conservation initiatives and fostering rural economic growth and community development. He previously served on the NARCDC board of directors, as well as on the boards of the Texas and Oklahoma RC&D Associations. Recently, Colton was appointed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator to the National Environmental Youth Advisory Council (NEYAC) as the sole representative of rural and agricultural communities on the Federal Advisory Council. He has also represented the next generation of rural Americans through his appointment on Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Young Texans Steering Committee, the Texas Commissioner of Agriculture’s Advisory Council, the Texas Workforce Commission’s Workforce Solutions of West Central Texas board of directors, and as Texas’ youngest appointee to the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, appointed by Governor Rick Perry.

Colton holds a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Services and Development and a Master’s degree in Communication. His deep-rooted passion for rural America, shaped by his personal experience growing up on his grandparents’ Brangus cow-calf operation in Arnett, Texas (population 15), has driven his educational and advocacy efforts for the agricultural sector and the revitalization of rural communities.

Fátima Zúñiga

Student, Renewable Natural Resources Engineering, Universidad Autónoma Chapingo

Sacnité Acosta

Co-Founder and Co-Leader, LEGAIA

Michael S. Regan

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator

Michael S. Regan is the first Black man and second person of color to lead the U.S Environmental Protection Agency.

Raised in North Carolina where he developed a passion for the environment, Mr. Regan most recently served as the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.
As Secretary, Mr. Regan spearheaded North Carolina’s initiatives to address climate change, transition the state to a clean energy economy, secured the largest coal ash clean-up in United States history, in addition to establishing North Carolina’s first-of-its-kind Environmental Justice and Equity Advisory board to better align social inequities, environmental protection, and community empowerment.

Previously, Administrator Regan served as Associate Vice President of U.S. Climate and Energy, and as Southeast Regional Director of the Environmental Defense Fund where he convened energy companies, business leaders, environmental and industry groups, and elected officials across the country to achieve pragmatic solutions to the climate crisis.

Mr. Regan began his career with the U.S. EPA, eventually becoming a national program manager responsible for designing strategic solutions with industry and corporate stakeholders to reduce air pollution, improve energy efficiency and address climate change.

Administrator Regan is a graduate of the North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University and he earned a master’s degree in Public Administration from The George Washington University.

Mr. Regan and his wife, Melvina, are proud parents to their son, Matthew.

Dr. Benjamin Chavis

Executive Director and Host, The Chavis Chronicles

Dr. Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr. (born January 22, 1948) in Oxford, North Carolina is an African American civil rights leader and icon, United Church of Christ (UCC) ordained minister, author, journalist, organic chemist, environmentalist, global entrepreneur, and currently President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) based in Washington, DC since 2014.

Dr. Chavis is the Executive Producer and Host of The Chavis Chronicles, www.TheChavisChronicles.com, broadcast weekly on PBS TV Network stations reaching over 90 million households throughout the United States. THE GOOD NEWS is a new nationally syndicated, daily radio commentary www.TheGoodNewsRadio.com  hosted by Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. powered by the Krantz Media Group, www.krantzmediagroup.com.

The Chavis family has been deeply rooted in the “freedom movement” in Granville County, North Carolina for over 250 years as landowners, farmers, educators, theologians, physicians, and activists. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr is the great, great, great-grandson of the Reverend John Chavis (1763–1838), the first Black American to attend Princeton University and the first Black American to be ordained as a Presbyterian minister in the United States (in 1799).

In his youth in the early 1960s, Chavis was the North Carolina statewide youth coordinator and Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) assistant to Martin Luther King Jr., who inspired him to work and to become a Christian minister in the civil rights movement across the United States, and to later to champion African liberation in Angola, Namibia, South Africa and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Chavis became an active supporter and associate of the African National Congress (ANC) led by Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela.

Chavis first attended Saint Augustine University (HBCU) in Raleigh, NC in 1965 and 1966 majoring in chemistry.  He transferred to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1967 and graduated with a BA in Chemistry in 1970. While in Charlotte, Chavis continued to work as a college student for SCLC and as a labor organizer for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

At the age of 24, Reverend Benjamin F. Chavis Jr rose to international prominence in 1972 as the leader of the Wilmington Ten in NC, civil rights activists who were “political prisoners” as designated by Amnesty International, and who were unjustly convicted of committing arson and sentenced to a combined total of 282 years in prison. The Wilmington Ten convictions and sentences were appealed and eventually overturned in 1980 by the US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals due to unconstitutional systemic racism and “prosecutorial misconduct.” During Chavis’ frontline foot-soldier civil rights career in the 1960s, 1970s, and in the1980s, he has been unjustly charged, arrested and jailed over 67 times, and in each case subsequently found not guilty or dismissed as unjustly charged.

Chavis returned to graduate schools in NC, DC and NY in the field of civil rights as a minister and a program director of the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice under the leadership of another mentor, the Reverend Dr, Charles E. Cobb, Sr, Chavis received the Master of Divinity (magna cum laude) from Duke University (1980) and a Doctor of Ministry from Howard University (1981). Chavis was admitted in 1982 into the PhD program in Systematic Theology as a graduate student at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and completed all of the academic course requirements in 1984.  Chavis was elected National Vice President of the National Council of Churches in 1988.

In 1993, the national board of directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) elected Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr as the youngest Executive Director and CEO of America’s oldest national civil rights organization.  In July of 1993, Chavis was proud to introduce The Honorable Nelson Mandela to speak in person at the NAACP national convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Benjamin Chavis actually began his journalistic career at the age of 11 while in the sixth grade at Angier B. Duke Elementary School in Oxford, NC.   Chavis wrote weekly news stories about Black youth activism for The Carolina Times, published by one of the leading members of the NNPA, Louis E. Austin, in Durham, NC.  From 1985 to 1993, Chavis authored and produced a weekly national commentary “Civil Rights Journal” for the NNPA, Jet Magazine, National Black Radio Network, and for the American Urban Radio Network.  Chavis has continued to write award-winning Op Eds, news features, and columns for the NNPA from 2003 to 2023.

In 1982, Dr. Chavis was the first person to coined the term environmental racism during environmental justice protests in Warren County, NC. Over the past four decades, Dr. Chavis has emerged as the “Godfather of the Environmental Justice Movement” that today has evolved into an effective worldwide movement for environmental and climate justice and equity.   

Dr. Chavis defined environmental racism as “racial discrimination in the deliberated targeting of ethnic and minority communities for exposure to toxic and hazardous waste sites and facilities, coupled with the systematic exclusion of minorities in environmental policy making, enforcement, and remediation.”

In 1986 Dr. Chavis conducted, co-authored and published the landmark national study: Toxic Waste and Race in the United States of America, that statistically revealed and substantiated the national correlation and causation between race and the location of toxic waste throughout the United States. In 1991, as Executive Director of the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, Dr. Chavis Co-Chaired, funded and organized the First People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington, DC that codified the Principles of Environmental Justice

In 1992–1993, Dr. Chavis served as a member of the Clinton-Gore Transition Team and later became an active member of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development.  Dr. Chavis was the National Director of the successful Million Man March on October 16, 1995, in Washington, DC., the largest African American event mobilization in the history of America.

In 2001, Dr. Chavis and Russell Simmons co-founded and organized the first National Hip-Hop Summit in New York City that led to establishment for the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN), www.HSAN.org the world’s largest international coalition of recording artists, producers, and entertainment industry leaders.  From 2001 to 2012, over 75 Hip-Hop Summits were held in NY, TX, CA, Il, MI, MD, PA, NJ, NC, GA, MO, IN, WI, VA, AL, Toronto, and Johannesburg.

Currently, Dr. Chavis also serves as the Co-Chair of No Labels; Chairman of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO); Chairman of the Thurgood Marshall Center Trust; and Co-Founder Chair Emeritus of Diamonds Do Good.

Dr. Chavis has four sons: Benjamin III, Franklin, John Mandela and Reginald Louis. He has four daughters are Michele, Paula, Renita, and Ana Elisabeth.  He is a grandfather and a great grandfather.

Kenneth Martin

American Indian Environmental Office, EPA

Kenneth Martin is the Director of the American Indian Environmental Office at the US Environmental Protection Agency. Previously, he had served as Senior Policy Advisor on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, dealing on a wide range of issues under the Committee’s jurisdiction, from infrastructure policy to environmental policy. In 2016, he had been appointed by former President Obama as the first-ever Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tribal Government Affairs at the US Department of Transportation. Kenneth had also worked for the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for former Chairman Jon Tester and former Chairwoman Maria Cantwell. He began his government service working for US Senator Tim Johnson in 2004. Originally from Wisconsin, Kenneth is an enrolled member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and was raised on the Menominee Indian Reservation, where he is a descendant. He studied Political Science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. 

Eriel Deranger

Executive Director and Founder, Indigenous Climate Action

Eriel Tchekwie Deranger is a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN)  and Executive Director/Founder of Indigenous Climate Action (ICA). Deranger is active in international Indigenous rights advocacy movements participating in various boards and UN bodies. Deranger’s work focuses on Indigenous rights, climate justice  and intersectional movements. She is recognized for her role as spokespersons for her community  in the international Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign.  Prior to this she was a Specific Land Claims and Treaty Land Entitlement Researcher for the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations.  Deranger has written for various magazines and publications; featured in documentary films including Elemental (2012); and is regularly interviewed for national and international media outlets.

Amanda Monforton

Director, ECCC Policy Development

Amanda Monforton is Algonquin from the Pikwakanagan First Nation, and the Director of Policy Development within the Strategic Policy Branch of Environment and Climate Change Canada, where she leads emerging policy development, including Environmental Justice and Gender-based Analysis Plus.

Octavio Rosas Landa

Professor, Universidad Autónoma de México

Octavio Rosas Landa is an economist with a master’s in geography, and a professor in the School of Economics at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). He was a proponent of Mexico’s General Water Act (Ley General de Aguas) and is a founding member of the National Assembly of the Environmentally Affected (Asamblea Nacional de Afectados Ambientales—ANAA).

Marco Polo Huitrón Bernáldez

Director, Federal Infractions Against the Environment, Profepa

Marco Polo Huitrón Bernáldez holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Law and a Master’s Degree in Government and Public Policy. He has more than 10 years experience in public administration, litigation, procedural law and government management consulting. Currently, he is director of federal environmental crimes enforcement at Profepa.

Queen Quet

Published author, computer scientist, lecturer, mathematician, historian, columnist, preservationist, environmental justice advocate, environmentalist, film consultant, and “The Art-ivist.” Founder, Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition

Queen Quet Marquetta L. Goodwine is a published author, computer scientist, lecturer, mathematician, historian, columnist, preservationist, environmental justice advocate, environmentalist, film consultant, and “TheArt-ivist.” She is the founder of the premiere advocacy organization for the continuation of Gullah/Geechee culture, the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition.

Queen Quet has not only provided “histo-musical presentations” throughout the world, but was also the first Gullah/Geechee person to speak on behalf of her people before the United Nations in Genevé, Switzerland. Queen Quet was one of the first of seven inductees in the Gullah/Geechee Nation Hall of Fame. She received the “Anointed Spirit Award” for her leadership and for
being a visionary.

Queen Quet was vetted with the US White House as an Expert Commissioner in the Department of the Interior and was the Chair of the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor General Management Plan. Queen Quet served on the “National Park Relevancy Committee” and has engaged in several White House Conferences. She continues to work to protect the environment and to insure that diverse groups of people engage in the outdoors and the policies governing them.

Queen Quet has won countless awards for being a woman of distinction, scholarship, writing, artistic presentation, activism, cultural continuation and environmental preservation.

Queen Quet’s accolades include the United States Jefferson Award for community service, the inaugural MaVynee Betsch Conservation Award and being on the National Wilderness Society’s “Wall of Heroes.” The South Carolina’s General Assembly honored Queen Quet with Resolution 1453 for the work that she has done on behalf of the state and Gullah/Geechee people locally, nationally, and internationally. Georgia Environmental Educators presented her with the “Non-Traditional Environmental Educators Award” and the American Society of Adaptation Professionals presented her with the Regional Adaptation Leadership Award. In 2021, Governor Henry McMaster presented Queen Quet with the Order of the Palmetto which is highest honor given to a citizen in South Carolina.

Queen Quet was selected, elected, and enstooled by her people to be the first Queen Mother, “head pun de bodee,” and official spokesperson for the Gullah/Geechee Nation. As a result, she is respectfully referred to as “Queen Quet, Chieftess and Head-of-State for the Gullah/Geechee Nation.”

Jackie Medcalf

Executive Director, Texas Health and Environment Alliance

Jackie Medcalf is the resounding voice of Texans who are negatively affected by toxins in their environment. With her Environmental Geology degree in hand and a passion for public health, Jackie discovered what no doctor could: a hidden menace that threatened the lives within her home and those in her community; toxic chemicals and heavy metals seeping into the water supply.

Today, as the Executive Director of Texas Health and Environment Alliance (THEA), she is on the front lines of protecting public health by collaborating with government agencies, academic institutions, and community members to cleanup historic toxic waste sites.

THEA is a 2023–2024 EJ4Climate grant recipient for the project Empowering Vulnerable Communities to Prevent Toxic Chemical Exposure from Climate Change Events.

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/jackiemedcalf

Instagram: @tx.hea

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TXHEA

Orion Kriegman

Founding Executive Director, Boston Food Forest Coalition

Orion is the founding Executive Director of the Boston Food Forest Coalition (BFFC) and played a major role in the conception of Egleston Community Orchard in Jamaica Plain, the first food forest site to be adopted into the BFFC land trust. Since then, Orion has collaborated with the City of Boston, colleagues and local neighbors to expand the number of healthy food forests included in the land trust and the number of Bostonians included in the movement.

Prior to the creation of BFFC, Orion received his Masters in Public Policy and Urban Planning from Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He spent nine years at the Tellus Institute coordinating the Great Transition Initiative, an international network of scholars and activists examining the requirements for a transition to a sustainable planetary civilization.

BFFC is a 2023–2024 EJ4Climate grant recipient for the project Community-led Food Forest Development for Climate Resilience in Boston.

Instagram: @bostonfoodforest

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BostonFoodForest/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/orionkriegman

Jeffrey Renfrow

Director, Rio Bravo Restoration

Jeff Renfrow has been living and working along the Big Bend reach of the Rio Grande/Río Bravo border and its watershed for the last 35 years. During this time, he has worked as a river guide and restoration ecologist and has deep ties to the people and places on both sides of the border. He has worked extensively with managing agencies and communities on the US and Mexican sides to improve resiliency of the region’s land and people.

When not working as Director of Rio Bravo Restoration, Jeff can often be found floating a river somewhere for fun or building something in his shop.

Río Bravo Restoration is a 2022–2024 NAPECA grant recipient for the project Socio-environmental Capacity Building for COVID and Climate Change in Rural Communities of the Rio Grande/Bravo.

Instagram: @rio_bravo_restoration

Jose Torcal

Project Lead, Isla Urbana

Jose Torcal is a civil engineer with over ten years working across six countries in regeneration, sustainability and public space through water. His projects and interventions address climate change and improve neighborhoods, starting from the community. He has a strong commitment to collaborate across sectors and organizations to support the global movement towards sustainable communities.

One of his most recent projects, One Water. Somos Agua, a collaboration between Indigenous communities in Mexico and Canada to increase water resilience through rainwater harvesting and led by the NGO Isla Urbana (Mexico) and Nipissing First Nation (Canada), received an EJ4Climate grant in 2022–2023.

Instagram: @onewater.somosagua

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/islaurbana

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jose-torcal-0b835965

Marley Kozak

National Program Manager, The Resilience Institute

Marley Kozak is The Resilience Institute’s National Program Manager. She holds a master’s degree in Environmental and Regional Planning from the University of Calgary. She has spent the last decade building respectful, mutually beneficial relationships with a diverse group of partners, including Indigenous communities, governments, academia, environmental interest groups, and industry, to address major trends, issues and knowledge gaps related to the condition of the environment.

She has collaborated with partners to develop and implement community-based monitoring programs, knowledge co-production, and citizen science initiatives to enhance environmental stewardship and build climate change resiliency and adaptation in communities.

Marley was a participant in the trinational workshop held in Mexico in 2023 under the auspices of the CEC’s Communities for Environmental Justice Network project.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/marley-kozak-0a652597

Jaziel Soto Torres

Cucapah El Mayor Indigenous Community

A native of the state of Baja California, Mexico, Jaziel Soto Torres is a proud member of the Cucapá Indigenous nation. Influenced since childhood by the teachings of his grandmother, Inocencia González Sainz, a respected traditional leader in the community, Jaziel developed an unbreakable commitment to the social wellbeing of his people and the preservation of its rich cultural heritage. Motivated by a keen interest in the sustainable development of his community, he is currently studying aquaculture engineering and pisciculture.

Jaziel’s contributions have not gone unrecognized. In 2021, he was awarded the State Youth Prize (“Strengthening Culture” category), and had previously merited the 2008 National Youth Prize (“Environmental Protection” category).

Jaziel Soto Torres was a participant in the trinational workshop held in Mexico in 2023 under the auspices of the CEC’s Communities for Environmental Justice Network project.

Jacob Barnet & McKenna Dunbar

Cofounders, Electrivive

Jacob Nicholas Barnet (he/him)

Jake Barnet advocates for sustainable global energy systems, advancing efficiency, distributed generation, and grid enhancements. He supports analysis of the impacts on communities from data centers, and adding virtual energy assessment capabilities to state energy plans to ensure equitable, affordable energy retrofits for all communities.

McKenna Dunbar (they/them)

McKenna Dunbar is a thought leader in building electrification, committed to environmental justice and clean energy transitions. Dunbar plays a pivotal role in shaping Virginia’s building energy code and energy efficiency policies, driving the development of equitable clean energy finance mechanisms and community engagement efforts with a particular focus on IRA and BIL implementation. 

Alexandre Savard & Nicolas Jourdan-Gassin

Co-founders Encore! Biomatériaux

Alexandre Savard (he/him)  

Passionate about the plastic pollution issue, Alexandre founded the student project Hoola One, which is now a successful Quebec start-up. After completing his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering (Universite de Sherbrook), Alexandre worked for various impact companies, including Oneka Technologies, where he held the position of Operations Manager. Wishing to find solutions to replace single-use plastic parts, he decided to go back to school and start his own business. 

Alexandre is responsible for the company’s technological development and financing. 

Nicolas Jourdan-Gassin (he/him) 

Nicolas is an enthusiast for circular economy. With a background in business management, he has outstanding communication skills. Before embarking on his entrepreneurial adventure, Nicolas worked as a research assistant at McGill University and as an impact analyst at Impak. 

With a strong network in Quebec’s sustainable development community, Nicolas will lead the company’s business development and marketing. 

Ana Cristina Posadas García & Daniela Guadalupe De Regil Muñoz

Cofunders, ORMA

Ana Cristina Posadas García

With a bachelor’s in environmental sciences and health from Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí and a master’s in wildlife conservation and management from Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, Ana Cristina Posadas García has also completed various certificate programs in areas such as carbon markets, environmental education, water management and environmental law. She is cofounder of the Organization to Restore the Environment and Social Harmony (Organización para Restaurar el Medio Ambiente y la Armonía Social—ORMA), an association that works in San Luis Potosí and elsewhere in Mexico. She was a member of the Sustainable Development Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales—Semarnat) and has participated in numerous conservation projects on protected natural areas, environmental restoration and sustainable forestry in collaboration with the National Forestry Commission (Comisión Nacional Forestal—Conafor), the National Protected Natural Areas Commission (Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas—Conanp) and various nongovernmental organizations.

Daniela Guadalupe De Regil Muñoz

Bio will be made available soon.

Emiliano Reyes

Technical Advisor on Climate Change at the German Development Cooperation (GIZ)

Emiliano Reyes supports climate action at various levels, as well as emphasizing climate justice, intersectionality, intergenerational equity, gender equality, resilience, and just transitions. As a young leader with experience in multilateral negotiations, he has been Mexico’s delegate in the G20, and was lead adaptation negotiator in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for the Mexican Delegation. He collaborated with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) as an expert at the 2SLGBTQIA+, in the Environmental Justice Dimensions Roundtable in North America, and as an author in the discussion paper on the same topic. He has provided guidance to youth initiatives within the Climatón UNAM, Resilient Youth with the German Embassy, and the GELP with the CEC, aiding in the development of solutions to address the climate crisis. Currently, he works as a Technical Advisor on Climate Change at the German Development Cooperation (GIZ), specializing in climate policy.

Fe Magdalena de Leon

Senior researcher and a paralegal with the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA)

Fe de Leon is a senior researcher and a paralegal with the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA). She holds a Masters degree in Public Health. Fe has worked extensively on chemicals and waste management policy issues focused particularly in the Great Lakes Basin, the federal Chemicals Management Plan, and on international agreements such as the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the Minimata Convention on Mercury, and the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent. She has worked collaboratively with Canadian and international nongovernmental organizations to support the listing of chrysotile asbestos for Prior Informed Consent Procedures under the Rotterdam Convention. Fe has worked extensively to promote community right-to-know and regimes to strengthen public participation in decision-making processes with underserved and disadvantaged communities, through the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and with pollution data from Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI). She was a member of Canada’s Stakeholder Advisory Council for the Chemicals Management Plan, between 2007 and 2019. Fe has also been a member of the NPRI Working Group since 2018 and was appointed to the Great Lakes Water Quality Board in 2023.

William J. Barber III

Senior Director of Impact and Equitable Investments at the Coalition for Green Capital

William J. Barber III is the Senior Director of Impact and Equitable Investments at the Coalition for Green Capital. As Senior Director, William works with CGC’s investment and impact teams to analyze investing strategy through both social and economic indicators. William also coordinates with the investment team to prioritize perspectives of communities, households, and customers by developing and integrating financial products/models responsive to the needs of underserved communities, including alternative underwriting strategies and reparative/catalytic capital strategies to drive product adoption in communities while also achieving GHG reduction goals.

Over the course of his career, William has served as an environmental advocate, a renewable energy executive, and a climate scholar–leveraging over a decade of experience, academic and legal training, and entrepreneurship towards driving community solutions to the climate crisis. He has contributed as a thought leader on numerous publications and articles describing the historic opportunity to use green finance, technological innovation, and policy to create wealth generation for communities, especially rural communities on the frontlines of climate impact. William has sat on numerous advisory boards notably including the DOE Boost Energy Innovation Board convened by Sandia National Laboratory and the Southeast Energy Insecurity Advisory Board convened by Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment.

His academic background includes a Bachelor’s degree in environmental physics from North Carolina Central University and a Juris Doctorate from UNC School of Law, where he focused on environmental and energy policy.

In 2019, he founded The Rural Beacon Initiative, a North Carolina-based social enterprise that provides consultation on operationalizing equity frameworks within sustainable solutions, and works to increase BIPOC ownership in the growing supply chains of regenerative agriculture and renewable energy. As a self-described son of the south, he is especially interested in increasing opportunities for self-determination and rural revitalization within the clean economy. William’s work on community solutions has been featured in numerous outlets, including NextGen’s 30 under 30 Young Black Changemakers and Paypal’s Rising Leaders Series.