Panel: Climate Justice - Implementing a Just Transition

Meeting the Moment (9/22/2021) Panel on Climate Justice and Implementing a Just Transition

Panelists from Community2Community Development, Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, Puget Sound Sage, and the City of Kent discuss how they work towards climate justice and how we build towards a just transition.

Panelists:

Rosalinda Guillen (she/her), Community2Community Development

Rosalinda Guillen (she/hers) is a widely recognized farm worker and rural justice leader. The oldest of eight, she was born in Texas and spent her first decade in Coahuila, Mexico. Her family emigrated to LaConner, Washington in 1960 and she began working as a farmworker in the fields in Skagit County at the age of ten. Ms. Guillen has worked within the labor movement with Caesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers of America and has represented farmworkers in ongoing dialogues of immigration issues, labor rights, trade agreements, and strengthening the food sovereignty movement. She works to build a broader base of support for rural communities and sustainable agriculture policies that ensure equity and healthy communities for farmworkers.

Adrienne Hampton (she/her), Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition (DRCC)

Like biodiverse systems, Adrienne Hampton approaches her work with a sense of shared motivation inspired by ecologically rooted relationships and cultivated in streams, dirt and air over the past 15 years. Her background and career are based on climate action, public health, equity and racial justice in policy. Hampton resolves to work towards employing a cross-cultural understanding of human identity in conjunction with a loving of the land. Adrienne holds a Master’s in Public Administration from the Evans School, University of Washington.

Debolina Banerjee (she/her), Puget Sound Sage

Debolina Banerjee is the Climate Justice Policy Analyst at Puget Sound Sage. Debolina's work at Sage includes research-based analysis of climate policies, campaign support on climate justice issues, and building power within Sage’s local and statewide climate coalitions. Before joining Puget Sound Sage, Debolina was with InterIm CDA researching the impact of the receding affordable housing stock and increasing risk of displacement faced by the immigrant and refugee communities of Seattle’s International District. She holds a Master's degree in Applied Environmental Studies in Planning from the University of Waterloo and a Master’s Degree in City Planning from the Indian Institute of Technology.

Dinah Wilson (she/her), Founder and Facilitator for Kent Cultural Diversity Initiative Group

Dinah R. Wilson, a proud native of Virginia, is the founder and facilitator of the Kent Cultural Diversity Initiative Group (KC-DIG), which sponsored the first Refugee Employment Summit in King County. Dinah is also Senior Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Coordinator for the City of Kent, where she has worked since 2001. She is a member of the King County Equity Community Task Force which developed the Sustainable & Resilient Frontline Communities section of the Strategic Climate Action Plan (SCAP) and was just selected to serve on the core team of the 3C Initiative. Dinah is a poet and playwright whose poems have been selected several times to be published in the Metro Poetry on Buses series. The first play she wrote, Sacrifices, was selected by the Seattle Playwright’s Salon for a reading before local playwrights and critics.

Moderator: Jamie Stroble (she/her), Noio Pathways

Jamie 真理恵 Stroble is a passionate environmental and climate justice leader, policy advocate, community organizer, and educator raised in Hawai’i and rooted in Seattle. She led the groundbreaking development of a first ever climate justice framework (Section II: Sustainable & Resilient Frontline Communities) as part of King County’s 2020 Strategic Climate Action Plan, and created the Climate Equity Community Task Force, to center frontline communities and BIPOC voices in community-driven climate policy-making. Jamie currently serves as Co-Chair of the Seattle Planning Commission, on the UW EarthLab Advisory Board, the Healthy King County Coalition Built Environment Workgroup, the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition Advocating Together for Healthy Communities board, and the Got Green Climate Justice Committee. Some of Jamie’s projects include consulting with various organizations on environmental justice, climate equity, and community engagement through her side project, Noio Pathways, and mentoring young women of color in public service and environmental fields.