2025 Environmental Justice Symposium

Speaker Bios

Keynote

Image

Lauren Bash, she / her
Climate Activist, Optimist, and Storyteller

Lauren Bash aka @ReLauren (she/her) is a climate optimist, activist, and storyteller from Los Angeles. Her social channels aim to make conversations about sustainability and climate more inviting and less judgmental, through (sometimes silly) educational content around the principles of climate action, community, and slow living. She has been named a Harvard C-Change "Climate Creator to Watch,” and has been featured on BuzzFeed, Grist, Atmos, The New York Times, and dozens of podcasts. Outside of her online presence, you can find her cooking plant-based meals, surfing, running, and playing with her pup, Sonny.

Panel 1: From Roots to Roads

Image

David Pellow (moderator)
Dehlsen Chair and Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies

David Pellow is the Dehlsen Chair and Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies, and Director of the Global Environmental Justice Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His teaching and research focus on environmental and ecological justice in the U.S. and globally. His books include: What is Critical Environmental Justice?; Total Liberation: The Power and Promise of Animal Rights and the Radical Earth Movement; Resisting Global Toxics: Transnational Movements for Environmental Justice; and Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago. He works with numerous organizations focused on improving the living and working environments for people of color and other marginalized communities.

Image

Lily Lucero, she/her (Panelist)Farm Education Manager at FoodWhat?!

Lily Lucero (she/her) grew up in central San Diego on unceded Kumeyaay land and comes from a long line of land stewards, farmers, and farm workers. She spent her college years working in immigration advocacy and graduated from UC Berkeley in 2022 with a B.A. in Latin American & Indigenous Histories and a B.A. in Spanish Literature. Following graduation, Lily relocated to a Santa Cruz regenerative farm where she spent three seasons teaching accessible garden and farm education to individuals living with intellectual and developmental disabilities from the farmworker communities of Watsonville and Salinas, guiding them in growing culturally relevant and nutritious produce to enjoy with their families. She currently works as the Farm Education Manager at Food What?! in Watsonville, a youth empowerment and food justice organization where youth engage in relationships with the land, food, and each other in ways that are grounded in love and rooted in justice. Lily is also a member of the California Farmer Justice Collaborative’s Farmer Justice Advocacy Committee. Lily is committed to expanding access to regenerative farming practices, community empowerment through food sovereignty, the nutrition and health of land stewards, and reclaiming farming as a tool in building safe and liberating spaces.

Image

Joe Garcia (Panelist)
President/Founder at California Farmworker Foundation

Joe was raised in King City, CA and has worked in agriculture since 1992, He graduated from Cal State University Fresno, with a B.S. Science, Business Administration- Agribusiness Option. He recently completed LBAN’s Business Scaling program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In 2016 Joe started the California Farmworker Foundation, whose mission is to serve and support California Farmworker communities by providing programs and services to better their quality of life. With offices in four regions, the Foundation has grown from a staff of 4 to over 30 in those 8 years. Giving back to the community is his passion.

Panel 2: Building Equitable and Resilient Cities

Image

Summer Gray (moderator)
Qualitative Sociologist and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies

Summer Gray is a qualitative sociologist and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research spans climate justice, critical resilience, and disaster studies, focusing on inequities in the distribution of environmental risks and benefits. Her book, In the Shadow of the Seawall: Coastal Injustice and the Dilemma of Placekeeping (University of California Press), examines how historical and structural inequities shape vulnerability and contribute to disparities in climate adaptation. Beyond her scholarly work, she practices cinematic sociology, using film as a tool for critical inquiry and environmental storytelling. 

Image

Lia Cohen (Panelist)
Senior Coordinator for Climate Planning and Resilience at Climate Resolve

As Climate Resolve's Senior Coordinator for Climate Planning and Resilience, Lia supports projects that advance climate resilience in Los Angeles and across the state. She is an alumna of Coro Southern California’s inaugural Climate Resilience Leadership Network, an experiential program committed to building the leadership capacity of Los Angeles County’s climate policy, advocacy, and community-based change makers. Before joining Climate Resolve, Lia worked as an organizer for the Ohio Coordinated Campaign, mobilizing turnout during the 2020 election.  She has also held various roles in social impact, sustainability, and legal advocacy, including her work on sex discrimination and workplace justice with the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, D.C. Lia graduated summa cum laude from UCLA in 2020 with a Bachelor’s degree in International Development Studies and minors in Public Affairs and Environmental Systems and Society.

Image

Iris Craige (Panelist)
Assistant Director of Policy and Research at Strategic Actions for a Just Economy

Iris is the Assistant Director of Policy and Research for Land Use and Corporate Landlords at Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) and a member of the Rent Brigade. Her work explores how policy can empower tenants, disempower corporate landlords, and create opportunities for social housing. She produces research and advocacy efforts focused on land use interventions, tenant protections, and building pathways toward decommodified housing. Iris holds a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA, where she concentrated in Community Economic Development and Housing. Her previous experience includes eviction defense and tenant organizing in the San Francisco Bay Area. She brings a deep commitment to housing justice and a collaborative approach to policy change.

Image

Angela Bai (Panelist)
Research and Policy Analyst at LA Alliance for a New Economy

Angela is a Research & Policy Analyst on the Climate campaign at Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), focusing on workforce development. Her work at LAANE helps build towards a union-built Los Angeles that leads on climate and renewable energy goals. She arrives at her present work through research backgrounds in biology and urban studies and movement traditions of youth climate organizing. She's always thinking about the meaning of work, solidarity economics, systems of collective care, and diasporic grief, as well as where she is going to eat fried chicken next. 

Panel 3: Restoration and Community Action

Image

Yamina Pressler (moderator)
Assistant Professor of Soil Science and Restoration Ecology at Cal Poly

Dr. Yamina Pressler is an Assistant Professor of Soil Science and Restoration Ecology at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo where she leads the Coastal Soil Horizons & Ecology Lab (C-SHEL). Her research focuses on soil ecology, formation, and plant-soil linkages to inform ecosystem restoration and stewardship. Yamina is also an educator and science communicator committed to collective soil conservation and care. She received a Ph.D. in Ecology from Colorado State University and a B.S. in Environmental Management from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Yamina was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Texas A&M University, prior to joining the faculty at Cal Poly in 2019.

Image

Theo Caretto, he/his (Panelist)
Staff Attorney at Communities for a Better Environment

Theo Caretto joined Communities for a Better Environment as a Legal Fellow in 2022. During his time at CBE, Theo has supported efforts to phase out oil drilling in LA City, advanced local building decarbonization, and joined the California Environmental Justice Alliance’s statewide Congreso lobby day in Sacramento. As Staff Attorney, Theo works on energy regulatory matters statewide and locally, focusing on building decarbonization, gas retirement, and energy affordability.  He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine and a J.D. from UCLA School of Law.

Image

Julie Colbert, she/her (Panelist)
Environmental Director at Santa Ynez Chumash Environmental Office

Julie Colbert began working with the Santa Ynez Chumash Environmental Office in June 2008. An enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Julie earned her B.A. in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz, where her undergraduate research focused on uranium mining in the Black Hills of South Dakota and the health and environmental impacts on tribal communities. She initially began working for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians as an intern while completing her master's degree at the Bren School at UC Santa Barbara in Environmental Science & Management where she specialized in Water Resources Management. In 2009, Julie transitioned into the role of Environmental Specialist, where she led numerous water resource management projects for the tribe, building on her strong background in water quality monitoring and pollution control programs. She now serves as the Environmental Director, overseeing key environmental programs and projects for the tribal community and government, including implementing education and outreach opportunities for the tribal youth. 

Closing Remarks

Image

Jane Lubchenco is the Valley Professor of Marine Biology and University Distinguished Professor of Integrative Biology at Oregon State University. She is a marine ecologist with expertise in the ocean, climate change, and interactions between the environment and human well-being.  From 2021-2025, she served as Deputy Director for Climate and Environment in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.  She served as the U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and inaugural member of President Barack Obama’s Science Team from 2009-2013. From 2014-2016, she was the first U.S. State Department Science Envoy for the Ocean, serving as a science diplomat to China, Indonesia, South Africa, Mauritius and the Seychelles. She has received numerous awards recognizing contributions to science and society.  Dr. Lubchenco served as President of the Ecological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the International Council for Science (ICSU). She co-founded three organizations that train scientists to be better communicators and engage effectively with the public, policy makers, the media, and industry: the Leopold Leadership Program (later Earth Leadership Program), COMPASS, and Climate Central.  She co-founded a research-policy network of university researchers, the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO); she co-founded the National Ocean Protection Coalition that unifies U.S. organizations working for effective ocean protection; and she co-founded a science-industry partnership, SeaBOS, Seafood Businesses for Ocean Stewardship.