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- Leader Profiles
- Megan Walline, Washington DC
- Kaisha Atakhanova: Almaty, Kazakhstan
- Josette Perard: Port au Prince, Haiti
- Sizani Ngubane: Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
- Mary Umble Wuya: Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria
- Marta Benavides: Santa Ana, El Salvador
- Teresa Flores Bedregal: La Paz, Bolivia
- Temra Costa: Berkeley, California, USA
- Olanike Olugboji: Kaduna, Nigeria
- Ilana Meallem: Jerusalem, Israel
- Oral Ataniyazova: Nukus, Uzbekistan
- Rosemary Olive Mbone Enie: Limbe, Cameroon
- Shawna Larson: Alaska, USA
- Tara DePorte: Brooklyn, New York USA
- Nadya Boneva: Sofia, Bulgaria
- Ana Maria Vasquez: Magdalena de kino, Mexico
- Ms. Anastasia Pinto: Imphal, India
- Dana Ishaq Fathi Rassas: Jordan
- Arshinder Kaur: Punjab, India
- Devorah Brous: Jerusalem, Israel
- "Offie" Maria Cleofe Bernardino: Puerto Princesa City, Philippines
- Martha Isabel “Pati” Ruiz Corzo: Jalpan, Mexico
- Dr. Mercy Palatty: Tamil Nadu, India
- Lucy Mulenkei: Nairobi, Kenya
- Gemma Bulos: Palawan, Philippines and U.S.
- Elouise Brown: Navajo Nation
- Ofelia Rivas: Tohono O’odham Nation
- Enie Begaye, Dine & Tohono O'odham Nations
- Lori Riddle: Akimel O’Otham Nation
- Julie Fischel: Western Shoshone Nation
- Lori Goodman: Dine Nation
- Veronica Eady: Brooklyn, NY
- Deeohn Ferris: Washington, DC
- Davida Finger: New Orleans
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 | Kaisha Atakhanova: Almaty, Kazakhstan
Kaisha Atakhanova is the Founder and Director of EcoCenter in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, and the Coordinator of the national Anti-Nuclear Campaign in Kazakhstan. This campaign, spearheaded by Kaisha and her colleagues, mobilized largely women citizens to stop the government from weakening the legislation against commercial import and storage of radioactive waste in 2003. In recognition of her accomplishments, Kaisha received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2005, which she plans to use to establish a Socio-Ecological Investment Fund to support women’s initiatives and NGO activists in the region. |
 | Josette Perard: Port au Prince, Haiti
Josette is the co-founder of the Lambi Fund of Haiti, whose accomplishments include 12 years of working with peasant organizations in Haiti on sustainable development and environmental justice. Her work with Lambi Fund of Haiti has accompanied over 100 peasant organizations on grassroots projects that have impacted over 1.2 million Haitians. Every year, Josette Perard organizes two conferences for grassroots women in Haiti, training them to be environmental activists. In addition, she has motivated grassroots organizations to commit to planting tens of thousands of trees. |
 | Sizani Ngubane: Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Sizani is the founder and director of the Rural Women’s Movement. She worked for ten years as a gender specialist for the Association for Rural Advancement in KwaZulu Natal. Prior to that she worked for the South African Women’s National Coalition as a provincial coordinator. Sizani was also appointed the first organizer in the Northern Natal Region by the African National Congress (ANC). |
 | Mary Umble Wuya: Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria
Mary is the coordinator of a grassroots non-governmental organization in Jos, Plateau State Nigeria. Mary's NGO focuses on educating rural women on issues of clean water, sanitation and hygiene, reproductive health and micro-financing. She is committed to empowering women to promote healthy, equitable communities.
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 | Marta Benavides: Santa Ana, El Salvador
Marta is a Salvadoran activist, theologian and educator. She is the Founder of Ecohouse and the International Institute for Cooperation Amongst Peoples-IICP. Marta has developed ecological programs at the local, regional and national levels, teaching permaculture and soil and water conservation and management to rural and indigenous communities with emphasis on women and youth. She works on environmental issues at the regional and global levels with the UN processes and other concerned groups. Marta is also the recipient of the 2003 U.N.'s Prize for Women's Creativity in Rural Life and one of the 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize, 2005. |
 | Teresa Flores Bedregal: La Paz, Bolivia
Teresa Flores is coordinating advocacy activities of the Bolivian Civil Society Alliance for Sustainable Development (ABDES), a network made of 5 CSO networks, working for access to land, advocating justice for indigenous peoples, women’s rights, education, and the improvement of living conditions of the poorest people in Bolivia. This network, in its turn, is affiliated to the network Sustainability Watch, which is working in 18 Southern countries, monitoring the implementation of the Johannesburg Summit and the MDGs 1 and 7. |
 | Temra Costa: Berkeley, California, USA
Temra Costa began her career in sustainable food while organizing for the preservation of organic standards in 1998. After completing her degree in agriculture from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, she moved to California to work with the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF). Throughout her time with CAFF, Temra supported Farm to School programs and farmers markets and directed a statewide local food program of Buy Fresh Buy Local. |
 | Olanike Olugboji: Kaduna, Nigeria
Olanike has worked for years to mobilize disadvantaged women in Kaduna State, Nigeria to address a socially oppressive government and a number of environmentally destructive cultural practices in water supply, energy services, urban transport and education issues. As director of the Environmental Management Initiative and the Environmental Management and Protection Network, Olanike networks governmental and intergovernmental bodies, NGOs, CBOs and other individuals and corporate organizations to develop environmentally sustainable initiatives. |
 | Ilana Meallem: Jerusalem, Israel
“Ilana is a true fighter for environmental justice – never accusing anyone, just bringing thousands of photos, hard facts, and the unavoidable conclusions to which you are led, to bear on whatever her latest target is. Her work capacity is astounding and her ability to network between organizations, cultures, and people is excellent.” |
 | Oral Ataniyazova: Nukus, Uzbekistan
Oral is the director of the Center Perzent in Nukus, Uzbekistan. A gynecologist and an expert on reproductive health, Oral established the Center Perzent to increase public awareness about environmental issues, and promote women's rights in order to improve the health and status of women and children in the region. Oral Ataniyazova won the Goldman Prize in 2000 for her work addressing the Aral Sea crisis. The Aral Sea, once a large inland sea in Uzbekistan, is on the verge of disappearance. |
 | Rosemary Olive Mbone Enie: Limbe, Cameroon
Rosemary Olive Mbone Enie is a Cameroonian Geologist and Gender Ambassador with the Gender and Water Alliance (GWA) of the Netherlands. She was as the General Secretary of Women International Coalition Organization (WICO) International, The President of WICO Africa and the Executive Director of Cameroon Vision Trust, a Cameroon based NGO. For over 15 years she has been actively working in the field of sustainable development and environmental management at grassroots levels in Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and beyond. |
 | Shawna Larson: Alaska, USA
“Shawna is a leader in tribal sovereignty efforts and has been chosen to represent Alaska Native peoples at statewide, national and international meetings to testify and speak out in support of environmental justice struggles. She should represent her region because she is a very powerful young Indigenous leader, extremely connected with the Alaska Native communities, and causes for environmental justice." |
 | Tara DePorte: Brooklyn, New York USA
Tara has worked for many years with the Lower East Side Ecology Center, developing opportunities for inner-city youth to learn about, and develop responsibility for, their local environment. She has worked alongside countless local environmental and youth organizations, as well as local city government offices in addition to her community-based work in different parts of the world. |
 | Nadya Boneva: Sofia, Bulgaria
Ms. Nadya Boneva is well-known within Bulgaria and the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the field of environmental protection and sustainable development. She has deep experience working within governmental, business arenas and has created partnerships among NGOs and different citizen movements living and working in rural areas of Bulgaria. She is working with many municipalities in remote parts of the country, where the communication is difficult and follow-up is essential. Nadya helped the municipalities to establish NGOs, and has worked to strengthen NGO's capacity with training, fundraising, and running advocacy initiatives. |
 | Ana Maria Vasquez: Magdalena de kino, Mexico
Ana Maria Vasquez has been committed to helping women organize for their own empowerment and for environmental justice throughout Latin America for decades. From Panama to Mexico, she has support dozens of women in their efforts to launch sustainable local businesses. |
 | Ms. Anastasia Pinto: Imphal, India
Anna Pinto has worked for over 18 years in Bihar, Manipur and the North East Region in India mobilizing around women’s and children’s rights, and community rights and responsibilities in sustainable management of water and land. Anna has written a number of papers and has developed innovative methods for raising community awareness through audio-visual and interactive media and skill building trainings. |
 | Dana Ishaq Fathi Rassas: Jordan
Dana Ishaq Fathi Rassas is a student at the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, an institute established in 1974 to carry out basic and applied research in Desert Science. Dana is researching the environmental impact of seawater desalination on agriculture, Israel as a study case. |
 | Arshinder Kaur: Punjab, India
Arshinder Kaur has worked on the academic level to the grassroots to enhance her community’s understanding of environmental sustainability. She has organized and coordinated schools with Navdanya on themes of ‘Organic food & Culture’, Gandhi and Non Violence, Soil as a living system, Water democracy and Third International Conference on Water and Women 2005. |
 | Devorah Brous: Jerusalem, Israel
Devorah Brous is the founder/director of Bustan, an Israeli environmental justice concerned with distributing resources in an equitable and sustainable way throughout Israel. Devorah works in the field establishing connections with historically disenfranchised communities (particularly the Bedouin) and bringing them on as partners in the work of Bustan, as well as advocating for them in public arenas. She is on the board of various projects and think tanks, and is called upon for her expertise and personal connections in the Bedouin community. |
 | "Offie" Maria Cleofe Bernardino: Puerto Princesa City, Philippines
Offie is the Executive Director of a province-based network of NGOs, Palawan NGO Network. She is very active in environmental protection and engages in policy discussions with local political leaders and organizes campaigns, marches, rallies and small enterprise support activities. |
 | Martha Isabel “Pati” Ruiz Corzo: Jalpan, Mexico
Martha “Pati” Ruiz Corzo is a recognized leader for building a bottom-up civil conservation movement in central Mexico. Located in the Sierra Gorda mountains, Pati and her husband began organizing concerned citizens for a regional rescue program based on environmental education, economic development, forestry management, and community development specifically directed to women who are the heads of household in the rural extreme poverty communities due to high rates of migration of working age men to the USA. |
 | Dr. Mercy Palatty: Tamil Nadu, India
Dr. Mercy Palatty is the President of an organization that has organized more than 7,000 neighbourhood parliaments of about 30 neighbouring families each in one district. These neighbourhood forums carry out various awareness and action programs, such as the collection of 100,000 signatures for a safe water campaign. |
 | Lucy Mulenkei: Nairobi, Kenya
Lucy Mulenkei is a Maasai from Kenya who coordinates the African Indigenous Women’s Organization, which trains and strengthens capacity among indigenous rural Nomadic Pastoralist and Hunter Gatherers on environment and sustainable development with a main focus on Biodiversity conservation and traditional knowledge. Lucy has worked with more than 100 different grassroots organizations in East Africa. She also chairs the Indigenous Women’s Biodiversity Network. |
 | Gemma Bulos: Palawan, Philippines and U.S.
Gemma has traveled around the world and mobilized over 100 cities in over 60 countries to join this global peace movement, The Million Voice Choir. Her organization, a Single Drop (ASD) mobilizes the Million Voice Choir to promote social action specifically around water issues and encourage environmental stewardship to cultivate peace. The Million Voice Choir’s purpose bridges cultures worldwide, creating a worldwide experience for people to see and feel the magnitude of a simple action as it's effects ripple outward. |
 | Elouise Brown: Navajo Nation
Elouise Brown, a leader in DDR, believes that economic development must not come at the expense of the health of our children, the air we breathe, our sacred land and water, and our way of life. With her work she aims to protect and preserve the natural state of Harmony and Beauty against corporate intrusion and environmental injustices. |
 | Ofelia Rivas: Tohono O’odham Nation
“There is a word for our way of life: Himdag,” says Ofelia Rivas, leader in the O’odham Solidarity Project. “Our way of life is based on the land and living in harmony with the land. All of this has been violated and there has been a tremendous imbalance even within our own people.” |
 | Enie Begaye, Dine & Tohono O'odham Nations
Enei Begaye of the Dine (Navajo) & Tohono O'odham nations, is currently the Executive Director of the Black Mesa Water Coalition. She is a speaker, writer and organizer around issues of environment, youth, and indigenous rights. |
 | Lori Riddle: Akimel O’Otham Nation
Gila River Indian Community tribal members, led by Lori Riddle, launched a campaign to evict the incinerator from tribal lands in 2002 after learning about the toxic emissions from the facility. Located at the tribe's Lone Butte Industrial Park on the reservation near Chandler, Arizona, the incinerator emitted dioxin, mercury and many other toxic chemicals. |
 | Julie Fischel: Western Shoshone Nation
Julie Fischel, attorney for the Western Shoshone Defense Project questions whether the real impetus for the U.S. government's raids on the Danns is because the area from which the animals were removed "sits atop one of the largest gold finds in the history of the United States." |
 | Lori Goodman: Dine Nation
Dine Citizens Against Ruining our Environment (Dine CARE) was founded in 1988 to resist the construction of a toxic waste site in the southwest corner of the Navajo Nation. Lori Goodman has been an integral part of Dine CARE since its inception. This first campaign was a success: through community organizing, education, and protest, Dine CARE warded off the proposed site. A similar victory was attained in 1991, when the organization prevented the construction of an asbestos dump on Navajo land in New Mexico. |
 | Veronica Eady: Brooklyn, NY
Veronica is a Senior Staff Attorney for New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, serving as project manager for the Environmental Justice and Community Development Project. |
 | Deeohn Ferris: Washington, DC
Deeohn Ferris is President/CEO of the Sustainable Community Development Group, Inc. a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to metropolitan sustainability, environmental health, smart growth and regional equity. Ferris is an environmental attorney whose interdisciplinary career spans government, industry and public interest. |
 | Davida Finger: New Orleans
Davida Finger, a New Orleans native, is working as the Louisiana State Coordinator for Oxfam America's Gulf Coast Emergency Response. She is leading policy and advocacy efforts throughout hurricane affected areas in southern Louisiana. |
| Megan Walline, Washington DC
Megan is a water law attorney at the Department of the Interior, where she works on issues related to western water rights, water allocation, and agency compliance with the ESA and the Clean Water Act. In addition to litigation responsibilities, she advises agencies on water-related projects to benefit listed species. She currently is working on a project that will remove Chiloquin Dam in Oregon to improve habitat for endangered fish species in the Klamath Basin. |
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Elouise Brown, a leader in DDR, believes that economic development must not come at the expense of the health of our children, the air we breathe, our sacred land and water, and our way of life. With her work she aims to protect and preserve the natural state of Harmony and Beauty against corporate intrusion and environmental injustices. |
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