ESLP’s Spring 2024 Speakers!
Leo Grandison: Climate Justice & Community Activism
April 27th 2024
Leo is dedicated to the realm of sustainable horticulture, presently serving as an instructor and researcher at Southwestern College in the vicinity of San Diego. During his time at UCSC, Leo held a prominent position as a SUA officer and actively participated in various student organizations including Haluan, African/Black Student Alliance (BSU), Black Voice, and was instrumental in establishing e2. He frequently revisits Santa Cruz as a guest speaker and mentor for present-day students, imparting inspiration and fostering a mindset open to new perspectives and paradigms.
Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali: Climate Emergency & Building Hope
May 9th 2024
Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali, recognized as a prominent thought leader, international speaker, policy maker, community liaison, trainer, and facilitator, currently holds the position of Executive Vice President at the National Wildlife Federation. Additionally, he is the visionary behind Revitalization Strategies, a venture dedicated to advancing our most marginalized communities from mere survival to prosperity.
With a rich history spanning 24 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mustafa's commitment to social justice began at a young age of 16. Joining the EPA as a student, he played a pivotal role as a founding member of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ). In his most recent roles as Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice and Community Revitalization and Assistant Associate Administrator, he vigorously advocated for environmental justice causes, fortifying policies, programs, and initiatives. Throughout his tenure, he collaborated closely with EPA administrators from William Riley to Scott Pruitt, leaving an indelible mark on the agency's approach to environmental justice.
Lakota Harden: Climate Organizing
May 15th, 2024
Lakota Harden (Minnecoujou/Yankton Lakota and HoChunk) is a highly-respected, award-winning organizer, community leader, and elder who has been part of Native American struggles for the past four decades. Much of Lakota’s work focuses on the healing of intergenerational historical trauma that stems out of the systematic genocide implemented by the U.S. government. The colonization of Indigenous communities has had multiple affects on those who have survived "Manifest Destiny" tactics.
In healing work, she stresses, it is important to look at the spiritual, mental, as well as physical and emotional complexities of individuals. Acknowledging trauma, exploring methods and resources for healing, drawing on cultural practices and centuries old knowledge, are some of the ways to move forward.
Lakota is also a founder of the Herring Rock Water Protectors, an environmental group, under the guidance of the Sitka tribe, that works to protect herring and salmon from overfishing by corporate interests. In following the spirit of Standing Rock, this group focuses on the issue of herring depletion as a local embodiment of the destruction of culture and earth.
Tiffany Dena Loftin: Creating Movements
May 29th 2024
Tiffany Dena Loftin is a 2011 UCSC alumna who has a substantial career throughout different levels of government. She was the National Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Youth and College Division, and worked as the community engagement director for Vote.org.
Loftin has a five-year background in national labor union organizing. She has been a part of various organizations such as the American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Labor-Council of Industrial Organizations.
“The labor movement has never won anything without the community,” Loftin said to the Labor Tribune in 2016. “It’s important that the Labor Movement remembers and understands that it is accountable to the community it lives in.”
Mark Lopez: Longevity in the Movement
June 5th 2024
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.
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.”