mark! Lopez- 4/9/2018

mark! Lopez comes from a family with a long history of activism. He was raised in the Madres del Este de Los Angeles Santa Isabel (Mothers of East LA Santa Isabel – MELASI), an organization co-founded by his grandparents, Juana Beatriz Gutierrez and Ricardo Gutierrez. This set his trajectory as a community activist. He has engaged in a wide array of student activism at UC Santa Cruz where he earned his B.A. in Environmental Studies, and taught university courses at UC Santa Cruz, Cal State Northridge, and UCLA Extension. mark! earned his M.A. from the Chicanx Studies Department at Cal State Northridge, where he completed his Masters thesis titled The Fire: Decolonizing “Environmental Justice.” mark! joined East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice as a member three years before joining the staff. After serving as Lead Organizer for East Yard Communities and Co-Director with EYCEJ Co-Founder Angelo Logan, mark! accepted the Executive Director responsibility. He organizes in the area where he was born, raised and continues to live.

Max and Thao- 4/16/2018

Max Jimenez was born in Philippines and moved to Highland Park in Northeast Los Angeles when they were 8 years old. In LA, they worked with the Alliance for Climate Education in hopes to bridge and engage community members in organizing around environmental racism and institutional neglect that families of color and low-income folks struggle with. Max’s work is focused on basic needs such as food and housing insecurity. They live a plant-based lifestyle and strive to encourage others that eating real and healthy food should be accessible and affordable to all. The gentrification happening in their community is causing displacement and houselessness, which shifted their focus on housing justice. Max is now a third-year as Community Studies and Politics double-major at UCSC. They are the Student Union Assembly President and they have been working tirelessly to make sure that students are living in habitable and just housing conditions. They, along with other students, established a new organization on campus, the Student Union housing Working Group, where they have campaigns and projects that revolutionize the housing movement in UCSC, the City of Santa Cruz, and even on a UC Level.

Women of color speake out- 4/23/2018

Women of Color Speak Out is a collective of direct action activists that formed during ShellNo. Shifting the dominant environmental narrative in policy and science, we speak out on how systems of oppression have led to worldwide ecological disaster. We speak on how capitalism, colonialism, racism, the prison industrial complex and patriarchy have lead into climate change. WoCSO consist of grassroots organizers with Black Lives Matter Seattle, Seattle Bhakti Yoga, Rainier Beach Restorative Justice Project, Peacemaking Circle Initiative, and NDNs for Justice.

Women of Color Speak Out - Tactics for Coalition Building

Learn about the tactics of this group of well known Direct Action Climate Justice activists. Famous for confronting institutionalized racism and patriarchy not only in Oil corporations but also in the Nonprofit Industrial Complex,  Women of Color Speak Out present tactics for creating coalitions between marginalized frontline communities and ally groups, with emphasis on how to strengthen solidarity while dismantling the systems of oppression that have created Climate Change. They examine Internalized Oppression, and what the true roots of oppression are, so that the Climate Justice movement can be most effective at this critical time in human history.

Edgar Xochitl- 5/7/2018

Edgar works on cross-pollinating traditional ecological knowledge, queer politics, and indigenous philosophies to connect the dots between colonial botany and queer liberation. Edgar actively nurtures ecological spaces to organize folx, raise awareness, sequester carbon, dissolve borders, and heal the bodies of Queer and Trans People of Color. Edgar was the 2016 Propagation Specialist at the Center of Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. Ze worked on intercropping the Decolonization of Flowers and Queer Ecology into the discussion of sustainable agriculture, environmental justice and climate chaos. Edgar has a Forestry degree from the University of Washington with a focus on Restoration Ecology. Edgar is currently residing in San Francisco organizing and nurturing ecological spaces. #GardenCholo #FlowerBending

David Robles + Carlos lemus- 5/14/2018

David Robles is a 2nd year Apprentice at the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems. Robles first came to work at the CASFS farm in fall 2012 when he enrolled as an undergraduate at UCSC. During his tenure at the farm, he has displayed a tireless nature and deep dedication to caring for a farm that serves undergraduates, aspiring farmers and the Santa Cruz community through education, research and building food access. His contributions have been integral to the farm’s health and sustainability. He is especially passionate about youth leadership, music, history, and land access. 

Carlos Lemus is a soon-to-be first generation UC Santa Cruz alum, and has spent his undergraduate years fighting for food justice and social equity through digital activism. He is a Film & Digital Media and History double major, and has contributed to the campus' food systems, media, and inclusion. He has produced videos for Practical Activism Conference (PAC), Student Union Assembly (SUA) and UC Global Food Initiative. Carlos co-founded ELATED (Empowering Latinx Advancement Through Education & Development), worked on the campus farm, and was Chair for the Food Systems Working Group (FSWG) 2016-2017. Son of Guatemalan and Salvadoran migrant parents and Richmond, California-raised, he brings a unique student perspective to the history and future of the geopolitical world of food and immigration.

Here are some links to mini-cites Carlos made for his work and FSWG's if you would like more visual context/content.

https://s-157.zoomforth.com/carlos-lemus

https://s-157.zoomforth.com/ucscfswg

Flora Lu- 5/21/2018

Flora Lu is the Pepper-Giberson Endowed Chair and Professor of Environmental Studies at UCSC and Provost of Colleges Nine and Ten. She earned her A.B. in Human Biology from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, Royster Society Fellow, and Lang Post-Doctoral Fellow, Flora began conducting research in the Amazon while as an undergraduate in 1992. As an ecological anthropologist, she is interested in human/environment dynamics in tropical rainforests, the political economy of oil extraction, resource governance, and household economics. Her longitudinal fieldwork among indigenous communities in the northeastern Ecuador has been featured in two programs on the National Geographic Channel, has been funded by $2.5 million in external grants, and has been published in four books and three dozen publications in journals such as Human Ecology, Conservation Biology, Current Anthropology, Human Organization, and the Journal of Ecological Anthropology. She is the recipient of the Division of Social Sciences “Golden Apple” Distinguished Teaching Award (2010); Committee on Teaching's Excellence in Teaching Award (2011); and Chancellor’s Diversity Award (2016).

Mustafa Ali- 6/4/2018

Mustafa Santiago Ali is a renowned national speaker, policy maker, community liaison, trainer, and facilitator. Mr. Ali specializes in social and environmental justice issues and is
focused on a utilizing a holistic approach to revitalizing vulnerable communities. He joined the Hip Hop Caucus, after working 24 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), where he most recently served as Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice and Community Revitalization. Throughout his career he has worked with over 500 domestic
and international communities to improve people’s lives by addressing environmental, health, and economic justice
issues.

Mr. Ali worked for EPA Administrators beginning with William Riley and ending with Scott Pruitt. He joined the EPA as a student and became a founding member of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ). He elevated environmental justice issues and worked across federal agencies to strengthen environmental justice policies, programs and initiatives.

Highlights from career at EPA:
• 2014-2017: led the Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice,
comprised of 17 federal agencies and White House officials, focused on implementing
holistic strategies to address the issues facing vulnerable communities.
• 2012: launched the EPA’s Environmental Justice in Action Blog, which reached over
100,000 followers that year. The blog highlighted innovative actions to address
environmental justice, sustainability and climate change issues.
• 2010: served as the Environmental Justice Lead for the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
• 2007-2008: served as Brookings Institution Congressional Fellow in the Office of
Congressman John Conyers, where his portfolio as a Legislative Assistant focused on
Foreign Policy in Africa and South America, Homeland Security, Health Care, Veterans
Affairs, Appropriations, and Environmental Justice.
• 2004: selected as the EPA’s National Enforcement Training Institutes “Trainer of the
Year” for his efforts in training over 4,000 people across the country in “The
Fundamentals of Environmental Justice.”