2025 CELEBRATING
blacks in sustainability
2025 AWARDEES
This year, we hosted the first ever Blacks in Sustainability Recognition Awards celebrating Stewards of the Earth!
Our event was developed to acknowledge the contributions of past, present and future Black innovators, thought leaders, activists, and creators to fields of Sustainability.
2025 Awardees
ANCESTORS
Community Development
Alternative Economics
Alternative Energy
Reparative Agriculture
Water
Waste
Wholistic Health
Education and Cultural Preservation
Green Lifestyle
Preparedness
Lieutenant General Julius Becton Jr.
Eco-Building
Climate and Environmental Justice
LIVING LEGENDS
Community Development
Alternative Economics
Alternative Energy
Reparative Agriculture
Water
Waste
Wholistic Health
Education and Cultural Preservation
Climate and Environmental Justice
CONTEMPORARY & FUTURE LEADERS
Sustainable/Reparative
Agriculture
Contemporary Leaders
Alexey Rodríguez & Amberly Alene Ellis-Rodríguez
Future Leader
Education and Cultural Preservation
Green Lifestyle
Contemporary
Future Leader
Eco-Building
Future Leader
Climate and Environmental Justice
Future Leader
Gratitude to all of our (s)heroes, leaders and legends in the ancestral realm, as well as those living, contemporary and future thought leaders shaping our reality today.
Nominations were offered from the Black Sustainability Network, community members, and through social media.
Handcrafted wooden awards were provided by HABESHA, Inc. from Ghanian craftsmen and women and
zero waste gifts were provided by Black Sustainability, Inc.
Awardee
BIOGRAPHIES
Baba Takuma Umoja, co-founder of the Cooperative Community of New West Jackson (CCNWJ)
Ras Takuma was born in Georgetown, Guyana and made his transition on June 7, 2024 in Jackson, Mississippi at the age of 74.
In 2013, Baba Takuma Umoja and his wife Nia Umoja spearheaded a resident-led grassroots community revitalization initiative to rebuild the 8-block community of West Jackson, Mississippi where they also lived. The Umoja’s and CCNWJ built a farm, bought 65 properties, including homes, vacant lots, and commercially zoned property transforming the neighborhood into a true sustainable model community effectively “buying back the block”. It was their belief that the people who live, work, and play in a neighborhood should be at the helm of any community envisioning process and directly benefit from any economic development as citizens, not just as consumers; that self-determination, self-reliance, self-respect, and self-defense cast the vision for the community and determine its destiny; and that every resident has the right to contribute to the Cooperative’s development through participatory democracy.
Arkee Hodges, founder and president of the Black Achievement Fund
Arkee Hodges is a visionary leader, educator and successful real estate investor. He is the Founder and President of the Black Achievement Fund, Founder and President of Pyramid Real Estate Development LLC and Founder of Education for Life Academy, an education company that offers the pioneering Standing on the Shoulders of Giants curriculum, as well as lectures and consultation on African history that begins and centers on the origins of humanity in Africa over 300,000 years ago - not slavery.
Prior to these positions, Mr. Hodges served as a chief Development Officer for several New York City nonprofit organizations including the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem; Echoing Green, the premier seed-funder for Social Entrepreneurs, and the Beginning with Children Foundation, which launched the first public charter school in New York City in the historically Black community of Bedford-Stuyverson. Mr. Hodges then served as the inaugural Director of the African American Male Initiative (AAMI), a joint venture between the Children's Aid Society and Columbia Teachers College, with the goal of providing five key interventions to Harlem male students from kindergarten to high school that would help them successfully graduate high school and college.
After serving as Director of the AMMI, Mr. Hodges served as a professor in the African American Studies Departments at John Jay College for Criminal Justice in Manhattan, and New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn where he taught courses in Race and Ethnicity in America, the African American Experience, and the Sociology of Urban Poverty.
Clark Arrington
A pragmatic visionary, Clark Arrington used his legal training to address capital formation for worker cooperatives. From developing bylaws that established capital accounts to pioneering preferred stock that maintained democratic control, Arrington has had a foundational influence on worker cooperatives. He supported the inaugural Black Sustainability Summit in 2016 as a presenter on Alternative Economics and diving into cooperatives and land trusts as a pathway for self-sufficiency.
Arrington, who most recently served as General Counsel of Obran Cooperative LCA (a conglomerate of companies controlled by a worker-owned holding company), and who was the former General Counsel of Seed Commons (formerly The Working World), and Equal Exchange (where he pioneered a two-tier membership structure that ensured worker control for the cooperative which developed Fair Trade to assure farmers received fair prices in the coffee industry), died September 25, 2024 of complications from lung disease, according to his daughter, Lauren Arrington of Baltimore. He was two months shy of his 77th birthday.
In his 50-year career as a lawyer full of foundational work for worker cooperatives, agricultural cooperatives and democratic ownership, Arrington helped Southern black farmers’ agricultural cooperatives save their lands, developed a community economic development program in Tanzania and later became involved in the African Development Bank, supported a black construction workers in Los Angeles (APR Masonry Arts), generated capital for U.S. worker cooperative startups, and advised co-op loan funds.
“Over the past decades, if there was innovation in capital access for worker co-ops, he was right in the middle of it - Equal Exchange, ICA Group, CFNE, Seed Commons, and Obran,” said Micha Josephy, Executive Director of the Cooperative Fund of the North East. “He brought fearlessness, creativity, and wisdom to all of his endeavors.”
Mike Tekh Strode
Mike Strode is a writer, cyclist, IT consultant, facilitator, and solidarity economy organizer residing in southeast Chicago whose community engagement work has included ride leadership with the Chicago chapter of Red, Bike & Green; editorial and archival oversight for Fultonia; and co-facilitation of Cooperation for Liberation Study & Working Group. He is founding coordinator of the Kola Nut Collaborative, a time-based service and skills trading platform which promotes timebanking throughout Chicago.
Strode is a Chicago-based community strategist, educator, and the founding coordinator of the Kola Nut Collaborative, Chicago’s only timebank. With a background in IT and community organizing, Mike has led initiatives that foster mutual aid, solidarity economy practices, and collaborative governance. In his role as Program Officer at Open Collective Foundation, he helped grow the organization’s portfolio from $2 million to $22 million, raising over $20 million in funding while supporting more than 600 civic, social, and educational projects.
Mike’s work is deeply rooted in cooperative principles, and he has experience transitioning organizations to worker self-directed models. He currently serves on the boards of the Dill Pickle Food Co-op, New Economy Coalition, US Solidarity Economy Network, TimeBanks.Org, and the South Deering Manor Community Association. Additionally, he is a member of the steering committees for Collective Diaspora and PATHS Chicago.
With a commitment to empowering communities, Mike has facilitated numerous workshops on governance, timebanking, and social exchange, making him an influential voice in the cooperative movement.
Annie Easley
In 1955, Annie Easley began her career at NASA, referred to as a human computer, performing complex mathematical calculations, and later developing and implemented code used in researching energy-conversion systems, analyzing alternative power technology—including the battery technology that was used for early hybrid vehicles, as well as for the Centaur upper-stage rocket. Her contributions to the Centaur project framed the technological foundation for launching future satellites and space vehicles, including the 1997 launch of Cassini to Saturn.
Dr. Reginald Parker
Dr. Reginald Parker is Trustee & Chairman of the Board for Freedman Green Bank & Trust, a nonprofit and charitable trust created to provide capital access and technical assistance to reduce greenhouse gasses while encouraging economic and workforce development through the energy transition movement. Dr. Parker has developed over 25 solar power projects and continues to influence the Alternative Energy sector.
Dr. Reginald Parker is the Founding General Partner of Green Power Ventures, a project development and investment management fund targeting HBCUs, faith-based organizations, multi-family facilities, and EV deserts. Dr. Parker has more than 25 years of experience in project development and technology design and management.
He has developed over 15 clean energy and manufacturing technologies, commercialized material and renewable energy technologies, developed and implemented successful business plans, and optimized manufacturing processes and products. He has commercialized over $60 million in new products and optimized technology for a $600 million business unit while at Rohm and Hass (now Dow). Dr. Parker served as a consultant on a successful B2C implementation strategy for a major airline and worked on a growth plan for a large municipality while at the Boston Consulting Group.
Baba Tarik Oduno
Baba Tarik Oduno, a prominent Garveyite, master teacher and horticulturist, coined the well known term “There is no culture without agriculture”. For nearly 60 years, Baba Oduno maintained a significant presence in the D.C. metropolitan area, and other U.S. cities, among Pan-Africanists, Black Nationalists, Christians, Muslims, African spiritualists, Rastafari brethren and sistren, and all those in between seamlessly integrating knowledge related to his experiences and wisdom of agriculture and nation building.
Tarik was born in Beaumont, Texas as Albert Lee Ferdinand Woods. Amid his community’s accumulation of resources and institutions in the Jim Crow south, he developed a historical and cultural consciousness based in Black self-reliance.
During that period of his life, he learned about Booker T. Washington, Mary McLeod Bethune, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Marcus Mosiah Garvey and other Black historical figures while under the auspices of teachers, spiritual leaders and other community elders who practiced a “race first” philosophy.
By his late teens, Tarik was attending college in Seattle. In 1968, he became a member of the Evergreen Division No. 50 of the Universal Negro Improvement Association — African Communities League (UNIA-ACL), the entity that Garvey founded in the early 20th century.
Years later, during the early 1970s, he served as a teacher in Muhammad University of Islam in Denver. During his early years in the UNIA-ACL, Tarik learned about Garveyism from Sarah Lynch, a UNIA-ACL Black Cross nurse and Garvey confidante. In his subsequent travels across the U.S., Tarik came into contact with other Garveyites who kept the movement alive after Garvey’s conviction and deportation.
Baba K. Rashid Nuri
Baba Rashid has amassed numerous accomplishments in the agricultural sector, from managing agricultural operations throughout the U.S. and in 35 countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa, serving as Director of Farm Operations for the Nation of Islam Salaam Agricultural Systems as well as serving at USDA as Deputy Vice-President for the Commodity Credit Corporation and Deputy Administrator for the Farm Service Agency and Foreign Agriculture Service where he formulated policy for administrative operations and commissioned the Miller Report, which chronicled the role of Big Ag and the U.S. Government in the century-long destruction of Black Farmers. This report was ultimately buried and led to Baba Rashid’s exit from the USDA, but his research laid the groundwork for the landmark Pigford class action lawsuit against the USDA, resulting in a $1.25 Billion settlement detailing how the agency consistently worked against the progress and success of Black farmers.
Baba K. Rashid Nuri has been building farms for more than 50 years, and in 35 countries worldwide. While at Harvard, he had a ‘burning bush’ experience in which he received the message to learn everything about food from seed to table. He brought that vision to full realization in 2006, founding Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture in Atlanta (TLW). Rashid grew Truly Living Well into the largest urban agriculture education center in the country. He was an employer, educator, mentor, community leader. Today, he travels the country lecturing and consulting with urban growers, urban designers, and political leaders to help them realize the immense power of urban agriculture in their communities. Rashid is a master farm designer and fundraiser with a vision and commitment to growing healthy food, people and communities.
In 2006 Baba Rashid founded Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture, then Atlanta's premier urban agricultural organization.
Alexey Rodríguez & Amberly Alene Ellis-Rodríguez
ReglaSOUL was brought to life in 2018 by the Regla-born activist, organizer, and Cuban Hip-Hop pioneer Alexey Rodríguez, alongside his wife, independent filmmaker, photographer, and food justice advocate Amberly Alene Ellis-Rodríguez, who was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Both live in the Havana municipality of Regla. Their purpose is to provide sustainable solutions for disparities as experienced by the Afro-descendant people in their neighborhoods, seeking to confront how day-to-day lives in their community are disproportionately impacted by issues of food apartheid, ecological racism, and the disconnection from healing pathways of the land.
Kendall Rae Johnson
aGROWKulture Urban Farm is comprised of a passionate team led by Kendall Rae Johnson, the youngest certified farmer in the U.S., committed to promoting sustainable agriculture and inspiring the next generation of eco-conscious leaders. They grow a diverse range of fresh fruits and vegetables and produce Kendall's Beelicious Honey. Their farm also offers unique educational programs, including school tours and farm animal experiences, designed to connect people with nature and the food cycle.
Kendall Rae Johnson, age 8, the prodigious young farmer from Atlanta, Georgia, earned the esteemed title of “the youngest certified farmer,” at the tender age of 6, from Arthur Tripp, Georgia’s State Executive Director of Agriculture. From playful encounters with soil at the age of 3 to blossoming into an agricultural sensation, Kendall Rae’s journey is nothing short of extraordinary.
Rooted in the heart of Atlanta, Kendall Rae, as affectionately known, inherited her green thumb from the wisdom of her great-grandmother, Laura “Kate” Williams. Inspired by Kate’s teachings, Kendall Rae’s agricultural venture began on a humble yet powerful patio porch, where collard green stems were not discarded but nurtured back into the earth. The magic of growth sparked in this tranquil space, where seeds of cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, and recycled collard green stems sowed the seeds of her passion.
From those humble beginnings, Kendall Rae witnessed the transformation of tiny seeds and stems into a vibrant garden, adorned with a colorful array of vegetables destined for her family’s table. Today, Kendall Rae has metamorphosed her love for cultivation into a thriving enterprise – aGROWKulture Urban Farm. She is also the Co-Founder of Kendall Rae’s Green Heart Charity, a testament to her commitment to making a positive impact.
Beyond her garden, Kendall Rae is the author of “I’m Growing Places,” a recently published book aimed at instilling an understanding of food cultivation among youth from pre-k to 5th grade. Her advocacy extends to hosting and producing events in and around Atlanta, championing youth involvement in agriculture, sustainability, and eco-conscious living.
Kendall Rae’s influence goes far beyond Georgia’s borders; she is a beacon of inspiration for young minds across the nation. As an advocate and spokesperson for the little people of Georgia and beyond, she lives by the mantra, “Meet New Friends, Make New Things, and Inspire Other Kids” Her journey from a playful start with collard green stems to a champion for sustainable living is nothing short of magical.
Bekkah Marshall
Eco Savvy Bek, officially Bekkah Marshall, CEHP is a Certified Environmental Health Professional with a focus on waterborne disease prevention, trained as an Environmental Scientist specializing in Water Quality and Treatment, and a Global Eco & Water Strategist serving on projects aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 – Water Quality & Sanitation and Women in Water. She has over 20 years of combined experience in environmental and water research, regulatory assessments and policy. She is currently a global independent consultant providing expertise on community-wide eco & water projects
Lloyd Hall
Lloyd Hall was an American chemist, who contributed to the science of food preservation. Lloyd Hall was born in Elgin, Illinois on June 20, 1894. Hall's grandmother came to Illinois using the "Underground Railroad" at the age of sixteen. Lloyd Hall contributed to food sustainability by working to prevent food waste.
After leaving university, Hall was hired by the Western Electric Company after a phone interview. The company refused to hire Hall after they discovered he was black. Hall then went to work as a chemist for the Department of Health in Chicago followed by a job as chief chemist with the John Morrell Company.
During World War I, Hall served with the United States Ordnance Department where he was promoted to Chief Inspector of Powder and Explosives. In 2004, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his work.
In 1932, Hall discovered a way to suppress food-spoiling nitrogen through a combination of sodium chloride, sodium nitrate, and nitrate. In later years, he developed a method to prevent food spoilage through the use of chemicals like lecithin as antioxidants. He also created a way to get rid of microbes that encourage food spoilage by using ethylene gas.
Lloyd Hall devoted much of his life and efforts to food science curing meat and investigating the role of spices in food preservation, particularly improving a curing salt marketed by Griffith Laboratories known as flash-drying. Most of his patents in meat curing dealt with either preventing caking of the curing composition, or remedying undesired effects caused by the anticaking agents. By the end of his career, Hall had amassed 59 United States patents, and a number of his inventions were also patented in other countries.
Khari Diop
Over the past 27 years, Khari Diop has designed and built out gardens at homes, schools, and in communities, as well as developing urban farms and composting systems. He is a proud co-founder and member of the West Side Compost Project alongside the team at historic Westside Gardens and founder of Think Green, LLC. Khari became fascinated with the science and art of composting in 2011 while building out a community garden on an urban farm in the East Lake community with the Southeastern Horticultural Society. The market manager and compost guru, Corrine Coe, inspired Khari to join a compost cooperative called Terra Nova and the rest is history. For Khari composting is life, it's death, and it's everything in between.
Nana Siti N. Opio
Dr. Nana Siti N. Opio, was a naturopathic physician and traditional midwife from Jersey City, New Jersey who committed herself to the service of midwifery & traditional healing for over 50 yrs. As a Naturopathic Doctor, a Traditional Grand Sho Sho (pronounced SHOW SHOW) Midwife, Basu and Elder Counselor, she delivered and assisted hundreds of returning ancestors on their journey to this physical plane. By supporting the metamorphosis of womben into motherhood across the world, restoring their power & health through application of indigenous wisdom, Nana Siti is and will always be treasured by the communities she touched and expanded.
She was one of the co-founding members of the Black Sustainability Summit and in addition to midwifery, she passed her immense wisdom of sustainable living and raw veganism forward to her students and patients alike. Although Atlanta, GA was the last place she resided, she was one of the few midwives willing to travel internationally to “catch” babies. For her “We Give Thanks”.
Andrea Blanton
Andrea Blanton was born in Camp Lejeune, NC and grew up in both Chicago, IL and Phoenix, AZ. She has a BA from Spelman College, a Community-Based Doula Certificate from First Families of GA and a Sustainable Urban Agriculture Certificate from HABESHA Inc. Andrea runs FOOD EARTH BIRTH influenced by southeastern seasonality, community vibes and divine whispers to assist in bringing forth new life via birth work, food offerings and herbs. She spends most of her time caring for her four children, shopping at farmers markets, and thinking of a master plan. You can find her gardening, talking about food and freedom and practicing pleasure.
Carl Stokes
Elected in 1967, Stokes used his fame as the first Black mayor of a major US city to draw attention to how communities of color are hurt the most by environmental issues. He and his brother, Congressman Louis Stokes, both advocated for environmental laws to improve people’s living conditions. Once Carl Stokes took office in 1968, he called for improved sewage services, stormwater management, harbor operations, and debris removal creating safer drinking and recreational waters for the city of Cleveland. His environmental reforms would become the foundation of the Clean Water Act of 1972.
Edward Wilmot Blyden
Edward Wilmot Blyden, who is widely regarded as the “father of Pan-Africanism”. Blyden was an educator, writer, diplomat, and politician born in St. Thomas and migrating to Liberia. He would become a teacher in Sierra Leone and an author of more than 20 books focusing on history, culture and spirituality. His writings and ideas would pass on to influence the likes of Marcus Garvey, George Padmore and Kwame Nkrumah.
Cashawn Myers
As a founding member of HABESHA, Inc. (Helping Africa By Establishing Schools at Home and Abroad), Bro. Cashawn Myers has served as Executive Director since its inception in 2002. HABESHA is a Pan-African organization that cultivates leadership in youth and families through practical experiences in cultural education, sustainable agriculture, entrepreneurship, holistic health, and technology. In 2003, Bro. Cashawn led the development of the HABESHA Gardens Complex, a one-acre facility that serves the metro Atlanta area through providing education and training in urban organic agriculture, sustainable energy technology, and green living. When urban agriculture wasn’t popular, he was championing the need for food in our communities by any means necessary.
He has been instrumental in establishing training programs in Atlanta for K-12 youth (Sustainable Seeds-2004), and young adults (HABESHA Works-2011), and seniors (Golden Growers-2013), around sustainable urban agriculture and healthy living.
HABESHA, Inc. has been true to their name and has come full circle to also develop educational opportunities in the motherland by establishing the Kweku Andoh Sustainability Institute (KASI), an eco-resort and a research/training institute which highlights instruction in sustainable and renewable eco-holistic practices from an indigenous African perspective.
Whitney McGuire
Whitney McGuire, Esq. is a trailblazing sustainability consultant with a unique 360-degree approach to crafting holistic sustainability strategies for organizations, particularly in the arts and culture sectors. Leveraging her extensive background as a lawyer, founder, professor, and former Associate Director of Sustainability at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Whitney seamlessly integrates systems thinking, design principles, and legal expertise to drive impactful, long-term sustainability solutions. Whitney's work stands at the intersection of sustainability, social impact, and community empowerment. As co-founder of Sustainable Brooklyn, she has been a vocal advocate for environmental justice and racial equity, using her platform to address systemic issues such as environmental racism and climate justice. Through educational workshops, panel discussions, and community initiatives, she has mobilized efforts to create tangible, positive change in marginalized communities while fostering collective responsibility.
Wangari Maathai
Born in Kenya, Maathai was the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her contributions to sustainable development, democracy, and peace. She connected her ideas of environmental restoration to providing jobs for the unemployed that involved the planting of trees to conserve the environment. Wangari also engaged religious traditions, including the indigenous Kikuyu religion and Christianity, mobilizing them as resources for environmental thinking and activism. From protests, hunger strikes, beatings and incarcerations, she persisted and founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental organization focused on tree planting, conservation, and women's rights. After advocating at the UN’s 3rd Global Women's Conference, the Green Belt Movement became the Pan-African Green Belt Network with 45 representatives from 15 African countries traveling to Kenya to learn how to set up similar programs in their own countries to combat desertification, deforestation, water crises, and rural hunger. The movement has since planted over 50 million trees and empowered countless women in Kenya.
Amina Robinson
Sister Amina Robinson is dedicated to restoring the conscious connection between people and Nature. A sustainability strategist, agriculturalist, and initiated priest, Amina’s work spans coalition building, sustainable food systems, and eco-conscious design, all rooted in a commitment to environmental justice. She is the founder of The Brain Farmacy, where she creates solutions that align mind and body with planet, cultivating spaces that foster resilience and well-being. Sister Amina has supported the Black Sustainability Summit over the past few years as a volunteer and more recently in the capacity of waste management lead and waste tracking to ensure zero waste event goals.
With ancestral wisdom as her foundation, Amina has deepened her expertise through immersive training with visionary teachers and organizations in sustainability, food systems, and holistic healing. She served as a COP27 delegate and her insights have been featured on platforms such as BBC Africa, Adornment UK, and WebMD. She is a sought after speaker, strategist, and guide for those integrating sustainability into their lives and work.
Whether guiding institutions toward regenerative practices, cultivating sustenance with her own hands, or holding space for personal transformation, Amina’s work is a bridge between the seen and unseen, the past and the possible. Of all the paths she walks, the most gratifying is Mothering three extraordinary beings.
Sierra Taliaferro, Community Outreach Associate for the Southeast, EPA Region 4
Sister Sierra Taliaferro is a motivated outdoor educator, and bird enthusiast with intentions to promote diversity in urban conservation, social justice and community advocacy. Over the years she has gained extensive experience in strategic planning, community engagement, urban agriculture, water conservation, and land management practices along with various community-centered entities, focused on implementing outdoor education and outreach, ranging from county parks and green spaces to non-profit organizations and commons.
Sierra is also the founder of The Green Obsidian, a social media platform designed to bring awareness of diversity of Black Professionals within environmental conservation. As a professional millennial and climate change maker, she hopes to continue to make herself an advocate for diversity in conservation and to emphasize the importance of our natural resources surrounding our urban environments.
Lieutenant General Julius Becton Jr.
Lieutenant General Becton’s illustrious military career is marked with numerous awards, such as the Distinguished Service Medal, two Silver Stars, two Purple Hearts, and two Bronze Stars. When he retired in 1983, Lt. General Becton was the Army’s second highest-ranking Black officer. Following his distinguished military service, Lt. General Becton transitioned to civilian disaster response, taking the helm of the Foreign Disaster Assistance office. He later became the first person of color to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as its director from 1985 to 1989. His diverse thought leadership and innovative practices have driven major changes in policies and programs for marginalized communities and have positively influenced more diversity within government and non-profit organization leadership.
Phillip Freelon
Freelon was the founder of The Freelon Group, an architecture firm based in Durham, North Carolina that focused on higher education, science and technology, and museum and cultural center projects. In 2009 architect Phil Freelon and his team won the international competition to design the newest addition to the National Mall, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). After its completion in 2016, NMAAHC became the largest African American centered museum in the country and the first museum on the Mall designed to sustainability standards, serving as the Smithsonian’s 'Green Flag.' In 2018, the museum was officially awarded LEED Gold Certification.
Pelé Ogunseye
Pelé combines Earthship construction with permaculture principles to advance his communities' future, crafting living spaces that reflect Afro-diasporic resilience and self-sufficiency. His innovative approach uses recycled materials to build homes that harness solar energy and cultivate food, promoting physical health through an environment that encourages activity and natural living. By integrating physical fitness with ecological sustainability, Pelé's work embodies the warrior spirit, fostering cultural reconnection and personal well-being. His contributions to eco-building highlight a commitment to health, culture, and environmental stewardship, making him a pivotal figure in contemporary eco-building.
Hazel Johnson
Hazel Johnson was a leader in the fight against environmental racism. Johnson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on January 25, 1935, to Mary (née Dunmore) and Clarence Washington. She cared about her family, but she had a personal connection to her family's health. Johnson was the older sibling of her family and began noticing environmental health concerns. Before her and all her siblings turned one, her three younger siblings had passed away. Orphaned when she was 12 years old, she was sent to live with an aunt in Los Angeles. She attended Jefferson High School for two years, then returned to New Orleans to live with her grandmother
She witnessed health disparities and catalogued pollution sources in Chicago's Altgeld Gardens Homes housing project. Altgeld Gardens was originally built to house American war veterans, but the area was by surrounded landfills, industrial buildings and sewage-treatment plants. For over fifty years, George Pullman's railroad company had put waste into the landfills and impacted more than 10,000 residents living in the Altgeld Gardens.
Following the death of her husband in 1969 from lung cancer and the prevalence of skin and respiratory issues among her seven children, Johnson began investigating the impacts of the neighborhood's environmental conditions on its residents. She documented the occurrence of chronic health problems present in the community in order to better understand the impacts of the area's air and water pollution. Johnson discovered that Altgeld Gardens sat in the center of a 14-square-mile ring of pollution from Chicago's Southeast Side to Northwest Indiana, leading her to dub the neighborhood "The Toxic Doughnut". In addition to being exposed to hazardous fumes from surrounding factories and asbestos used during construction of the buildings, the community was supplied with contaminated drinking water and was found to have the highest cancer rate in the city.
With the help of her daughter Cheryl who was in-training as a chemist, she tracked down sources of toxic contamination and worked to hold the Chicago Housing Authority responsible for improving the safety of public housing across the south side of Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s.
In 1979, Johnson founded the People for Community Recovery to address tenant issues within the Chicago area. Hazel Johnson worked tirelessly through most of her life to protect her neighbors from the environmental-health damage brought on by racial inequities and callous disregard for safety in redlined neighborhoods. Much of her later work was carried on through her nonprofit organization, People for Community Recovery and laid the foundation for present day environmental justice legislation and policy in Washington.
Dr.Erica Holloman-Hill
Dr E. is a Georgia native who earned her B.S. in Marine and Environmental Science and a M.S. in Biology with a concentration in Environmental Science from Hampton University in 1998 and 2001, respectively. In January 2012, she obtained a doctoral degree in Marine Science from the College of William & Mary, Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS). Dr E’s areas of expertise lie in the fields of marine and climate science, environmental risk assessments (human and ecological), community-based participatory research (CBPR), participatory action research (PAR), and environmental justice.
In 2016, Dr. E established Ayika Solutions, Inc. (ASI), a family-owned environmental consulting firm that strives to co-create and co-manage the sacred spaces where sound science and authentic community engagement merge into implementable solutions. Erica has served as a member of the US EPA National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (2016 -2019) and is currently serving as a member of the Georgia Chapter of the National Women In Agriculture Association, the Leadership Circle for Harambee House/Citizen for Environmental Justice, the City of Atlanta’s Clean Energy Advisory Board, the Clean Water Fund Board, Black Sustainability Network Inc Board, and co-owner of Market 166 Grocery Store and Kitchen Co-op.
Together with her husband Gary, Dr. E is raising her four sons, Asim, Asad, Asir, and Asun, in her childhood home of East Point, GA.
Nia Mitchell
Nia Mitchell is a committed climate justice advocate, scholar, and organizer serving as the Direct Support and Innovation Program Manager with the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN), and has previously worked as a Community of Practice Manager at National Resources Defence Council (NRDC) and a Manager of Health, Equity, and Climate with C40 Cities, and an Environmental Equity Policy Fellow with the Greenlining Institute.
Nia's work has had a profound impact on both the environment and Black communities through her efforts to create equitable pathways for climate and environmental justice. By co-developing a curriculum focused on building capacity for stronger partnerships between community advocates and local government staff, Nia directly addressed the pressing environmental justice concerns in historically marginalized cities like New Bedford and Providence. Nia’s approach is rooted in the belief that “how we do the work is the work”—highlighting that meaningful climate action is not just about policy change, but also about building trust, understanding, and connection within communities.
