April 17, 2023
Julian Agyeman
Julian Agyeman Ph.D. FRSA FRGS is a Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University. He is the originator of the increasingly influential concept of just sustainabilities, the intentional integration of social justice and environmental sustainability. He centers his research on critical explorations of the complex and embedded relations between humans and the urban environment, whether mediated by governments or social movement organizations, and their effects on public policy and planning processes and outcomes, particularly in relation to notions of justice and equity.
He believes that what our cities can become (sustainable, smart, sharing and resilient) and who is allowed to belong in them (recognition of difference, diversity, and a right to the city) are fundamentally and inextricably interlinked. We must therefore act on both belonging and becoming, together, using just sustainabilities as the anchor, or face deepening spatial and social inequities and inequalities.
He is the author or editor of 12 books, including Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World (MIT Press, 2003), Cultivating Food Justice: Race, Class and Sustainability (MIT Press, 2011), and Sharing Cities: A Case for Truly Smart and Sustainable Cities (MIT Press, 2015), one of Nature’s Top 20 Books of 2015. In 2018, he was awarded the Athena City Accolade by KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, for his “outstanding contribution to the field of social justice and ecological sustainability, environmental policy and planning“. On September 1, 2021, he became the Fletcher Professor of Rhetoric and Debate, an endowed chair at Tufts University. In November 2021, he was invited by then Boston Mayor-Elect Michelle Wu to be a Transition Advisor on her Transition Committee.
Rachel Lowe
Rachel Lowe teaches in Health and Physical Education, Health and Wellness BAS, and leads the Yoga Instructor Certificate Program. She joined Bellevue College in 2005 and has taught in the fitness industry since 1997. At the University of Arizona, Rachel received her Bachelor of Science, Masters of Public Policy, and graduate work in the Public Health Certificate Program.
She has taught Yoga since 2001 and is a National Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) E-500 RYT and RPYT (Prenatal Yoga). She has taught yoga in a variety of settings and styles of yoga. She adheres to strong principles of safety and professional standards in classes while also meeting students where they are so they may learn the most about yoga.
In her spare time, Rachel will be rock climbing, biking or enjoying time in nature.
Benjamin Lorr
Benjamin Lorr is the author of Hell-Bent, a critically acclaimed exploration of the Bikram Yoga community that first detailed patterns of abuse and sexual misconduct by guru Bikram Choudhury. Lorr is a graduate of Montgomery County public schools and Columbia University. He lives in New York City.
Sol Garcia
Sol Garcia is a California native who moved to Mexico City in 2016 to work for Isla Urbana, a Mexican nonprofit and social enterprise focusing on providing clean and sustainable access to water through rainwater harvesting. She oversees Isla Urbana USA, a US nonprofit supporting Isla Urbana’s projects throughout Mexico while also focusing on building young US student leaders through a Summer Program and other unique opportunities.
Dr. Jessica Hernandez
Jessica Hernandez is a transnational Indigenous scholar, scientist, and community advocate based in the Pacific Northwest. She has an interdisciplinary academic background ranging from marine sciences to forestry. Her work is grounded in her Indigenous cultures and ways of knowing. She advocates for climate, energy, and environmental justice through her scientific and community work and strongly believes that Indigenous sciences can heal our Indigenous lands. She currently holds appointments at Sustainable Seattle (Board Member), City of Seattle’s Urban Forestry Commission, and the International Mayan League (Climate Justice Policy Strategist). She is also the author of Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science.
Rachel Weigelt
Rachel Weigelt is the owner and operator of Frayed Threads Mending, a textile mending, repair, and tailoring shop focused on sustainability and extending the life of our clothes. Her studio is located in northeast Seattle and you can find her at www.frayedthreadsmending.com or @frayedthreads_mending on Instagram or Facebook.
April 18, 2023
Sierra Arredondo
Coming soon!
Samantha Wilder (on Behalf of the City of Bellevue)
Sam Wilder (she/her) has been in the sustainability and resource conservation field for twenty-five years. She is a graduate in Environmental Resource Management from Penn State University, with a minor in Education. Through City, County and State programs in Washington, she has worked with residents, businesses, property managers and schools on a variety of waste reduction and sustainability topics. As a professional educator, she has given over 2,000 presentations to school classes, school assemblies, neighborhood associations, residents and businesses. She has assisted over 1,200 businesses with eco improvements. She has worked as a consultant for City of Bellevue for twenty-two years on a range of programs and has taught the Greener Living community classes for ten years. In June, 2017 she was certified as a Climate Reality Leader through Al Gore’s Climate Reality Corps.
Brady Nordstrom
Eastside Program Coordinator at Futurewise & MPA at the UW Evans School of Public Policy & Governance
Futurewise is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We work throughout Washington state to encourage healthy, equitable and opportunity-rich communities, and to protect our most valuable farmlands, forests and water resources through wise land use policies and practices. Brady mainly works at the intersection of land use and housing by coordinating broad housing coalitions to push for effective solutions to our region’s overlapping crises with climate change, housing affordability, and transportation access. Brady worked for 7 years in the tech sector before returning to grad school in 2017 to study public policy at the University of Washington Evans School.
Chris Randels
Chris is a Bellevue resident who founded the transportation advocacy group Complete Streets Bellevue in 2020. The organization works to improve infrastructure for people walking, biking, rolling, and taking transit on Bellevue streets through outreach, engagement, and direct advocacy with elected officials and decision makers. CSB also works in coalition with other progressive institutions on the Eastside to advocate more broadly for more housing and land use patterns that support more multimodal infrastructure. Chris is also a part-time researcher in the Conservation and Landscape Ecology lab at the University of Washington. He enjoys watching sports, biking on our region’s trails, and walks around town.
Dan Coe
Daniel Coe has been making maps and visualizing data in the Pacific Northwest for the past two decades. He is the graphics editor for the Washington Geological Survey in Olympia, Washington, where his work explores the geomorphic history and natural hazards of the region. Daniel’s award-winning cartographic designs have been featured in National Geographic, the Atlas of Design, and Nature. When not making maps, he is usually exploring the forests and waters of Washington with his family. dancoecarto.com / Instagram/Twitter: @geo_coe
Neal Anderson
Neal Anderson is a longtime volunteer with the Sierra Club and has a particular interest in climate change. He’s been involved in past campaigns to prevent new fracked gas refineries in the northwest, and is now working on campaigns like this one that would begin to phase out our region’s existing gas infrastructure.
April 20, 2023
Heather Clark
Heather Clark is the Eastside Mobility Coordinator with Hopelink, a local non-profit organization. Heather works to help reduce transportation barriers and make transit more accessible to the community.
Ted Spence
Ted Spence is a veteran of three decades of software engineering through a variety of industries. He has led projects at large companies such as Facebook, Knowledge Adventure, Vivendi Universal, and AST Computer; and helped to develop startups such as Lockstep, Avalara, and EEDAR. He currently teaches data analysis techniques at Bellevue College and writes for tedspence.com. He lives in West Seattle with his wife and daughter and has been known to bike down to Alki whenever the weather permits.
Essex Lordes
Essex Lordes comes to Spark Northwest with years of experience advocating for underserved communities most impacted by systemic oppression, including conditions resulting from environmental injustice. His career began in the SF/Bay Area where he was a community organizer with San Francisco Pride At Work and has spent the past decade advocating for the needs of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color LGBTQ communities. At Spark Northwest he supports underserved communities as they transition to renewable energy.
Katherine Leggett
Katherine helps tell the story about Spark Northwest. Prior to joining Spark Northwest, she co-led a statewide grassroots campaign that mobilizes people to advocate for climate and racial justice bills during the WA State legislature. She has produced and directed advocacy videos for community organizations and has directed award-winning, social justice documentaries.
Pamela Chelalakem SeaMonster
Pamela Bond SeaMonster is the Vice Chair of the Snohomish Tribe of Indians, and Chair of the Indigenous led non-profit, The People of the Confluence. She has been a cultural educator for 25 years. She is also a plant medicine specialist, Traditional Storyteller, environmental rights activist, and fellow director on the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee.
Peter Prescott
Peter Prescott teaches in the Health and Physical Education, Outdoor Recreation Leadership, Health and Wellness BAC and Allied Health programs and has been at Bellevue College for over 20 years. He is the primary guide for all Outdoor Recreation Leadership Adventures and seemingly countless Wellness Center adventures. Peter received his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington, and his Masters in Sports and Exercise Leadership with a focus on Education from Seattle Pacific University. Certified affiliation with Wilderness Medical Institute, American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education, Leave No Trace Master Educator and a member of the Washington State Wellness Advisory Board. Peter grew up locally on Vashon Island and sees the northwest as his dream playground; skiing, surfing, backpacking, biking, and running. Get Out There…
Donna Miguel
Donna is the proud daughter of Angelina and Orlando Miguel. She has been teaching in the English department at Bellevue College since 2007 and teaches a wide array of classes: precollege and college composition, advanced composition, research paper, literature, and technical writing. She was a former department co-coordinator for the Accelerated Composition Courses and is currently the department coordinator for the technical writing courses.
Dellyssa Edinboro
Dellyssa Edinboro (she/her) is an educator, a researcher, and a community advocate who teaches in the Cultural and Ethnic Studies (CES) at Bellevue College. She has taught Race in the U.S., Introduction to African American Studies, Introduction to Women’s Studies, and Queer Studies.
Pam Clough
Pam Clough is an advocate with Environment Washington, a member-based environmental advocacy organization whose mission is to protect our air, water, and the places we love. Pam has been doing public interest advocacy and grassroots organizing since 2014, where she got her start with U.S PIRG. Pam’s campaigning has helped lead to updated antibiotic stewardship policies from fast-food giants like McDonald’s and Subway, local campaign finance reform, improved standards for lead in school drinking water for Washington schools, and more.
Veronica Padula
Veronica is the Clean Seas Program Research Scientist at the Seattle Aquarium. She earned her undergraduate degree in Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology from Columbia University in New York. She discovered her passion for wildlife research during the summer between her junior and senior years, when she was a research intern for Wildlife Trust. Her undergrad mentor offered her a position on a project in Alaska the following year, and although she had never really considered Alaska before, she was ready for adventure and accepted the offer. 10 years later, she had earned her Master’s and PhD while researching Alaskan fisheries. Her PhD research explored the impacts of plastic marine debris on Bering Sea communities and ecosystems. Veronica believes anyone can be a scientist, and she hopes that by spreading her love and passion for all things science, she can make the field more accessible to everyone.
Liz Schotman
A Florida native, Liz started her career as a marine biologist, working with commercial fisheries and sea turtle conservation in the Florida Keys and spending her vacations teaching marine science to high schoolers through Duke University. She then moved to D.C. to complete a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development & Conservation Biology from the University of Maryland, where she taught sustainability to undergraduate honors students. After graduating, she moved out west, where she served as the Olympia Surfrider Chapter’s Volunteer Coordinator, organizing beach cleanups and coordinating their water quality monitoring program, before becoming Surfrider’s Washington Regional Manager in 2020. As the Regional Manager, Liz supports the five chapters here in Washington in their efforts to fight plastic pollution, protect clean water and beach access, and ensure our coasts are resilient to climate change. She helps coordinate statewide beach cleanups, data reporting, and outreach efforts to raise awareness about the threats of plastic pollution to our waterways, our environment, and our health. Surfrider and our partners leverage these efforts towards policy solutions focused on stopping plastic pollution at its source at local, state, and federal levels.
Young Grguras
Young is a graduate from University with a BA in Environmental Studies and BS in Ecology & Evolution, while organizing on campus in various efforts and working for the Student Office of Sustainability. At PLAN Young mentors students in their own organizing efforts on campus with a special focus in plastic because of their proximity to petrochemical build out happening in the Ohio River Valley. In addition to their work at PLAN, they enjoy organizing in their local community, tending to their garden, and putzing around, usually with second hand materials.
Doug Brown
Dr. Douglas Brown is an emeritus member of the Bellevue College physics faculty. Prior to his 25 year service at BC, he was a member of the Research Faculty at the University of Washington and held teaching positions at several universities. He has been involved for half a dozen years in climate crisis organizing and curriculum development at BC.
Court Olson
Court is a climate activist leader who engages with government officials at city, county, state and federal levels. His is the founder and President of People for Climate Action which has chapters in thirteen local cities: each PCA chapter works with its city council and city staff to reduce community-wide greenhouse gas emissions. He is also a founding member of Shift Zero which primarily works at the State level to promote legislation and policies that will lower the carbon footprint of buildings. He collaborates with other organizations that are engaged in climate action work, too.
Court has been instrumental in getting local cities to develop climate action plans. Also, he has co-authored a few key climate related bills that have been passed by the state legislature. In addition, he has been regularly attending Puget Sound Energy stakeholder meetings and offering constructive comments regarding their efforts to transition to a clean energy future. He occasionally advises the WA Utilities and Transportation Commission, too.
In his professional career Court is a green building expert. He has overseen the design and construction of several high-performance commercial “green” buildings. Recently he oversaw the deep energy efficiency and electrification remodel of his own Bellevue home.
Hemalatha Velappan
Hema is a Forestry Scientist currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Washington, where she focuses on studying the changing dynamics of forests at the intersection of people, trade, and climate change. She brings a decade of experience in community-building, organizing, and advocating for social and climate justice. Hema is also a founding member of the Institutional Climate Action (ICA) student organization at UW which was instrumental in getting the university to successfully divest its $124 Million fossil-fuel investments. Originally from India, Hema worked with a non-profit program aimed at improving the livelihoods of people in a village in India. This included providing education to village children, offering skill development for women to make them financially independent, and establishing a grievance redressal system. This experience helped Hema realize the importance of Environmental Justice, and since then, she has become a passionate advocate of climate justice. Hema also volunteers with Citizen’s Climate Lobby (CCL), where she appreciates the organization’s “reach across the aisle” approach. She has assisted CCL Bellevue chapter with various tabling events, organized a climate justice conference, and established a working relationship with Bellevue College. In addition to her action-oriented advocacy work, Hema is also enthusiastic about climate change communication. She has extensive experience in presenting and organizing climate justice conferences, and has served as a keynote speaker alongside renowned activists, including Jamie Morgolin. Her expertise in the field and dedication to advocating for climate justice has earned her invitations to speak at various events, where she shares her research and activism experience with audiences from diverse backgrounds.
Michelle Williams
Michelle has a history of volunteerism, having worked through a program at Bellevue College with immigrants and refugees to improve their English and job-seeking skills, and having been a literacy tutor, promoted women’s rights, and more, but she came a little late to the climate change cause. A viewing of Chasing Ice in 2012 really opened her eyes to the problem but she didn’t figure out what to do about it until 2019 when she came across Citizens’ Climate Lobby. She has leveraged the attention to detail she developed as a software tester at Microsoft and other companies and the organizational skills she developed as a project manager to help the leader of the Bellevue CCL chapter in several roles over the years. At various times, she has led the Welcome Wagon, organized tabling and clipboarding events, given presentations, and participated in Grasstops, lobbying, and media efforts.
Phil Ritter
Steering Committee member of 350 Eastside, People for Climate Action, East King County PUD Campaign.
Independent nonprofit consultant since 2000 with clients including nonprofit housing developers, foundations and local governments. Interim positions have included Executive Director,Chief Financial Officer, Asset Manager and Property Management Director.
Senior management positions for five years each at Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition in the South Bay and Burbank Housing in Santa Rosa.
Grantmaking and Monitoring consultant with foundations and corporations in the San Francisco area for eight years working on a wide range of issues including the needs of undocumented immigrants and homeless families, environmental and community health issues and funding for affordable housing.
Past Board member of California Housing Partnership, Peaceworkers, Nonviolent Peaceforce, American Friends Service Committee and Center for Independent Living. Involved in nonviolent action campaigns related to wars, nuclear weapons/power, Apartheid, homelessness, immigrant and refugee rights and the Climate Crisis.
Last Updated April 17, 2023