Our Team

Andy is the Finance manager at CJA. He manages all things related to the finances and provides support to the program directors and other CJA staff in setting and executing on their respective operating budgets. He is passionate about the role Finance plays in supporting CJA’s mission of transitioning the world from an extractive to a regenerative economy. He has a BA in Accounting from Arizona State and is pursuing a Masters in Environmental Science and Policy from John’s Hopkins. Andy enjoys all things outdoors in his spare time around unceded Me-wuk land near Lodi, CA. He spends that outside time farming, hiking, walking his dog Rumi, playing basketball and snowboarding.

April Taylor is a Black queer Appalachian. She has served as an Economics and Governance program manager at the Highlander Research and Education Center as well as a Governance Council member for the Southern Movement Assembly where she developed curriculum, strengthened networks and provided accompaniment to grassroots groups in the South doing solidarity economy and Just Transition work. She has led multiple efforts to build solidarity economy alternatives with community members and has also supported Movement for Black Lives work to catalyze solidarity economy organizing in Black communities. She consistently holds space for impacted people to exchange knowledge and resources and to collectively dream and organize towards a Just Transition that allows communities to have their needs met in tangible ways that move beyond the exploitative white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives and works as a consultant for Solidarity Research Center. April’s role with Climate Justice Alliance is as the Reinvest in Our Power Campaign Organizer.

Destinee is the Accounting Coordinator at CJA. They graduated from Indiana University with two bachelor degrees in accounting and finance in 2019. Since starting their accounting career, they have had the opportunity to work in both corporate and nonprofit environments. They are passionate about inclusion and helping others. In their spare time, Destinee enjoys bike riding, writing poetry, and playing the guitar.

Edna is the Compliance Coordinator at Climate Justice Alliance, where she primarily manages contracts, grants and organizational compliance. She’s passionate about helping the operations of the organization run smoothly so that the rest of the organization is able to focus their work on our mission and values. Currently, she calls Portland, OR home, but she’s a Southern California and Northern Mexico Native – having grown up across both borders. She hold a Bachelors Degree from the University of California, Berkeley in Political Science.

Esteban is a climate policy advocate hailing from Medellin, Colombia. After living in NYC and then Vermont, he moved to DC to become a policy fellow for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.  He holds a BA from Middlebury College in Environmental Studies and Policy and is very passionate about the intersections between policy and climate mitigation and adaptation. He enjoys hiking, geeking out about policy, ginkgo trees, capoeira, and has a growing obsession for food history documentaries.

Haleigh (she/her) provides logistical and technical support to CJA’s Co-Executive Directors. Raised and currently resides in Upstate New York in the Adirondack Mountains. In 2016, she joined AmeriCorps NCCC and found a passion for grassroots organizing and providing support to organizations determined to protect and enrich their communities and natural environments. Haleigh has a BA in International Studies and Political Science. Besides supporting EJ activists and leaders, she enjoys rock climbing, yoga, reading, and listening to podcasts at her local cafe.

Heather is the Director of Operations and Finance at CJA. She oversees CJA’s finance, administrative, and human resource systems, and provides support and coordination within database and IT systems. She is passionate about the role operations can play in supporting social movements, and strives to center values of community care and continuous learning in her approach to operations work. Heather has a BFA in Acting from NYU, and until joining CJA full-time, split her time as a movement operations consultant and performing artist. Heather loves drawing, seeing plays, and spending time outside with her dog Stella.

Hendrik is part of CJA’s communications team and coordinates the digital media work. Born in Germany, Hendrik started his political activism as part of the anti-fascist movement against the resurgence of nationalism and racist violence following the reunification of Germany in 1990. To avoid the military draft in his home country, he moved to the United States and started to work in the Latin America solidarity and Global Justice movements and became the National Organizer for School of the Americas Watch. Hendrik started to freelance with the Climate Justice Alliance during the It Takes Roots Ruckus Direct Action and Resiliency Camp in the summer of 2018. In February 2019, he joined CJA as a member of the staff.   

KD is a revolutionary mother, organizer, and strategist, who leads by way of ancestral knowledge and the land. They have spent the last decade in social justice philanthropy moving millions to the frontlines and working to advance freedom through culture shift and intentional investments.

Their passion for interdependent leadership and celebration of individual sovereignty supports people and organizations to reach their highest potential: doing the most good while dismantling the systems that perpetuate harm.

KD lives in mountain West with their partner and two magical kids. They spend their personal time creating, community organizing, spending time outside, making good trouble, working to rematriate land and thinking about indigenous futures.

KD currently serves on the Board of Directors of Mountain Time Arts. During their time at ACLU, KD was a member of the national Indigenous Justice Steering Committee working to further justice for indigenous peoples. Prior to their work at ACLU, KD worked in the nonprofit and consultant world spending nearly a decade supporting the gender and reproductive justice movement.

Lauren Ressler joins the CJA team as Reinvest Project Co-Director. Lauren got her start organizing against coal-fired power plants in Washington state in 2009. She went on to support thousands of students, community groups, and faith leaders across the country demanding divestment from prison profiteers and fossil fuel companies as Campaigns Director at the Responsible Endowments Coalition.

In 2017, she began working with Freedom to Thrive to build a culture of giving to fund the movement to end mass incarceration and immigrant detention. She went on to work with Beloved Economies building narrative tools focused on changing the way we work in ways that are more just and which reckon with history. She has over a decade of experience designing and facilitating dynamic spaces that build trust, generatively move through conflict, and reach collaborative decisions. She is thrilled to be part of growing the Reinvest in Our Power campaign and building the new with CJA members. Lauren uses she/her pronouns.

Leah Derray is a writer, director, and community organizer from Indianapolis, IN. She has a background in organizing for racial and environmental justice movements and a bachelor’s degree in Africana Studies with a minor in Civic Leadership. Leah is obtaining her MFA Degree from DePaul University, where she is studying to be a Director of Film and Television. Leah was introduced to CJA and the Environmental Justice Movement through the Kheprw Institute several years ago and has since served on the leadership body of the Black Caucus. Leah is passionate about healing Black, Brown, and Queer communities through education, storytelling, connection, and organizing.

Los Angeles, CA

Guadalupe “Lupe” Romero Elicea is CJA’s Reinvest in Our Power Co-director. Born in Mexico City and raised in Michoacan, Lupe migrated to the United States South-Bay Area at the age of 17.

Lupe started their political involvement with the chicanx and undocumented student movements. Later they became part of the cooperative movement by joining a cooperative silk screen print shop. This cooperative experience gave Lupe many lessons which they now use to support Frontline communities who are fighting the extractivist economy by building their own alternative economies.

Montana

For the last decade Mark has been involved in community organizing and non-profit work ranging from front-lines direct action to education and outreach. Throughout this time he has been turned to as a storyteller within his communities, a skill often sought in response to inquiries from donors. Born and raised on occupied Suquamish land, Mark grew up exploring the surrounding land and waters with their two older siblings and parents. He was activated after joining a cross-country zero-waste campaign in 2010, which opened his eyes to the devastating impacts of the extractive economy first-hand: from physical refuse strewn across the country’s roadways to the pollution of waterways, mountain top removal coal mining, fracking, and petro-chemical fertilization. This propelled years of traveling across the country lending support to various indigenous and settler-led struggles and causes.

When he isn’t contributing his skills to this work, he can be found parenting two young children, writing fiction, organizing within his community, or a combination of all those things and more.​

Mechiya is an Environmental Artist, Storyteller and Curator. She attended the University of Illinois at Chicago where she studied Urban Studies and Public Policy through an environmental lens. She has dedicated her being to cultural-environmental justice and liberation, choosing art as the tool to build solidarity, cultural understanding, and a means of collective power and consciousness. Professionally, these means have manifested in a way that mirrors the vastness of freedom and the natural environment. She is the Communications Coordinator for Climate Justice Alliance, a Voqal Fellow, and the independent curator and creator of interactive, educational exhibits Moving Freely and Wishing Well. She has been a Roger Arliner Young (RAY) Fellow, an ELP Great Lakes Regional Fellow, a Special Projects Manager and In-house Creative for Equiticity, a WILD YAMS 2023 Artist-in-residence, and a contributing Mobile Artist to the city-wide plan We Will Chicago.

As the Policy Organizing Manager, Michelle supports CJA’s Eco-Political team and ensures that Alliance members are well supported and well-resourced.

Michelle leads with intentionality and compassion, using her experience – as a Black, masculine of center, lesbian, to uplift our collective voices and to demystify the political process that often excludes our folks. She also strives to connect the dots between systems of oppression and the need for environmental justice reform with a harm reductionist approach.

Previously, Michelle has worked at the intersections of anti-Black, electoral justice, and queer advocacy as a trainer, organizer, and strategist. Most recently, she served as the National Policy and Advocacy Director for the National Harm Reduction Coalition. She was responsible for ensuring the advancement of effective harm reduction policies at the state and federal levels by working with multiple stakeholders.

As a California native, with deep-seeded roots in Oakland, Michelle has seen firsthand the devastating results of working in silos and continues her commitment to building coalitions committed to change with Black folks, LGBTQ folks, and those living at the margins.

She’s actively living out her assignment.

Namita (they/them) is a queer South Asian-American person with caste privilege. They have worked in various movements focused on collective liberation, including in anti-caste movements, food sovereignty, racial justice, and abolition. They also have experience facilitating education programs around racial justice and investigating the US food system, co-creating alternative food systems for the Black community, and caring for nonhuman animals in animal sanctuary settings. Nam holds a B.S. in Ecology and a Sustainability Certificate from the University of Georgia. They are driven by a deep passion for learning and growth, and enjoy farming, caring for and spending time with non-human animals, making pottery, and exploring community-rooted food co-ops. 

Pia Desangles is one of the Project Stewards for CJA’s Our Power Loan Fund. Born in Santiago, Dominican Republic and raised in Broward County, Florida, Pia is passionate about working towards a just transition through agroecology and solidarity economics.

Before joining CJA, she pursued a certificate in ecological horticulture, worked as Technical Support staff for the Farmworker Association of Florida and several other orgs fighting for justice in Florida and the southeast. She is the co-founder of Lantana Language Collective, an aspiring language justice cooperative based in Central Florida. She holds a BA in Economics and Latin American & Latino Studies.

In the summer you can find her reading dystopian novels on the beach and in the winter you can find her hiking and learning about Florida’s beautiful ecosystems.

Sachio joined CJA in the summer of 2015 as a fellow, and has held different positions throughout his time with CJA. Before joining CJA, Sachio organized for fossil fuel divestment at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has since participated in different local and national political formations, obtained a graduate degree in journalism at the University of Hong Kong, and worked as a line cook at several restaurants. Sachio seeks to contribute in his lifetime to building strong organizations, liberated communities and revolutionary strategy. In his spare time, he enjoys reading political books, cooking, wandering, playing video games and hanging out with his dog.