Back to the Future: America’s Youth Organizing for Environmental Justice

How can technical assistance providers such as researchers, lawyers, academics and students support community-led movements for environmental justice? Join us for three Saturday panels featuring community leaders and assistance providers, followed by moderated small-group discussions with speakers and attendees.

Panel runs from 1 to 4 p.m. EST.

Register here!

 

Get to Know the Panelists

Panelist: Leah Thomas

Leah is an intersectional environmental activist and eco-communicator based in Southern California. She is passionate about advocating for and exploring the relationship between social justice and environmentalism and identifying the ways in which injustices happening to marginalized communities and the earth are interconnected. You could say Leah’s trying to make the world a little more equal for everyone and a little nicer to our home planet!

She graduated from Chapman University in 2017 with a BS in Environmental Science and Policy with a cluster in Comparative World Religions.

Leah remains committed to sparking conversation and mobilizing the environmental community to be anti-racist and not complicit, and encouraging and inspiring all members of our planet to explore new places, live more sustainably, and practice radical self-acceptance.

In 2020, Leah launched Intersectional Environmentalist, a platform for resources, information, and action steps to support intersectional environmentalism and dismantle systems of oppression in the environmental movement.

Leah has been featured in publications such as Vogue, Teen Vogue and more. She has collaborated with brands such as Dove, West Elm, and All Birds. Leah also consults with companies to integrate intersectional environmentalism and social justice into their brand mission statements, strategies, and special projects.



@greengirlleah

 

Panelist: Justin Onwenu

Justin is a fourth-generation Detroiter and environmental justice organizer for the Sierra Club. As a Detroit-based organizer he fights for clean air, clean and affordable water, and a just economy for all communities. This has included advocating for city ordinances that protect drinking water, securing funds for communities in need of air filtration systems, and working with local unions to fight for a just transition.

Originally interested in medicine and public health, he became involved in addressing climate and environmental justice issues in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey when, as Rice University student body president, he helped organize thousands to respond and support some of Houston’s hardest-hit areas. After graduating, he led outreach efforts for the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative where he worked to uncover the long-term health, housing, and economic impacts of Hurricane Harvey on Texans.

He currently serves on the Inaugural Michigan Advisory Council on Environmental Justice under the direction of Governor Gretchen Whitmer. He also served on the Democratic National Committee’s Environment and Climate Crisis Council Platform Committee, where he was one of 12 nationwide members responsible for helping develop recommendations for the climate, environment, and energy planks of the 2020 Democratic Party platform.

He firmly believes writing and other forms of communication should play a central role in moving people and policy, and has been published in the New York Times, Guardian, Detroit News and Houston Chronicle.



@justin_onwenu

 

Panelist: Wawa Gatheru

Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru is an environmental justice advocate, writer and current graduate student at the University of Oxford. She is a first-generation American of Kenyan descent and the first Black person in history to receive the Rhodes, Truman and Udall Scholarships. As an intersectional environmentalist, Wawa is motivated to uplift the voices of those most adversely impacted by environmental inequities through changing conservation conversations. For her work in collaboration with other activists and thought leaders, Wawa has been recognized as a 2020 Young Futurist by The Root, a 2020 Grist 50 FIXER, a 2020 Glamour College Woman of the Year and has spoken about her work across the country.



@wawa_gatheru

 

 

 

 

Highlighted Organizations

– Greening Youth Foundation – @greeningyouth



– Black Perspective – @theblackperspectivevt



– Sunrise Movement – @sunrisemvmt



– Environmental Justice Law Society – @vlsejls

 

With Performer: Ceirra Manassa-Curin

 

This Symposium is presented by Howard Law School and the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic and sponsored by Vermont Law School, Shaw University, and the Yale School of Forestry and the Environment.