Adi Varshneya is the US/Canada Membership Coordinator at GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives). She graduated from New York University, where she received the Metropolitan Studies Program Prize and high honors for her thesis titled “Climate Justice in New York City: community resilience after Hurricane Sandy.” A former Community Organizer & Outreach Coordinator at WE ACT … Read more
Dennis Uyat (they/them) is an environmental educator and consultant whose work centers zero waste and environmental justice. Professionally, they provide technical assistance, outreach, and education to public agencies, universities, schools, businesses, and non-profits. They previously organized programming for Zero Waste Youth USA convergences from 2017-2020 to highlight voices at the frontlines of environmental racism. Dennis … Read more
Max Wechsler grew up surrounded by a scrap metal junkyard near Philadelphia, PA. He is the Operations Manager for Urban Ore, the mission-driven for-profit reuse retail and recycling Ecopark in Berkeley, CA since 1980. He began with the company in 2011 as a salvager at the Berkeley transfer station. Urban OreOperations Managerhttps://urbanore.com
Kearni Nichelle Warren is a determined organizer and activist across multiple local and global issues. She is also an author. Hailing from Chester, Pennsylvania, she has mentored youth in her hometown and honors community elders through the Caregiver Society, which she founded in 2018. Kearni is a 2022 Environmental Leadership Senior Fellow and a 2021 graduate … Read more
Sarah Baillie, Population and Sustainability Organizer, leads outreach efforts to help people understand how the pressures of our growing human population and high levels of consumption hurt wildlife and habitat. She manages the Wildlife-friendly Wedding Guide and SoKind Registry. Sarah holds a bachelor’s in wildlife conservation from the University of Delaware, a master’s in biology … Read more
Alex brings a unique perspective to his work derived from over 20 years of experience in social enterprise development and advocacy around zero waste and recycling. With a strong operational, policy, and entrepreneurial background, Alex excels in business and zero waste planning, financial evaluation and projections, waste system modeling, social and environmental impact quantification, recycling … Read more
Win Cowger is an Environmental Scientist at the Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research. He specializes in advancing science on transport and fate of trash (including plastic and microplastic pollution) in watersheds and river flow (Tracking Trash). If we can track trash, we can identify solutions to plastic pollution and assess their effectiveness. While conducting this … Read more
Whitney Amaya is a Salvadoran-American from Long Beach, California. She received her B.A. in Geography/Environmental Studies from UCLA in 2015, and her M.S. in Geographic Information Science from CSULB in 2018. As a community member with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, she has helped organize bike toxic tours as a way to engage and educate … Read more
Grace Liao is a Senior Associate at Food Works Group. She brings a wide range of experience across the food system, including programmatic and operational experience in food banks, community food hubs, and food service and community kitchen settings. She brings an ethnographic lens to her work and is dedicated to building a more equitable, … Read more
Michelle grew up in Flagstaff Arizona where she fell in love with the natural world and got her undergraduate degree in Geology. While she was studying at Northern Arizona University she worked as a Peer Teaching assistant, hiking guide, preschool teacher, pizza slinger, and was the recipient of the NASA Space Grant internship. Her love … Read more