The first panel of the Youth Climate Justice and Activism Speaker Series, happening today from 4:30-6 p.m. in Olin Hall 138 (and on Zoom), will feature:
Javan Santos is the Policy Manager for the Climate Initiative, currently based in Washington D.C. He is a proud CHamoru, indigenous to the Pacific Island of Guam in the Marianas Islands. Working in policy since high school, Javan hopes to help young people have access to understanding policy and our government to inform their climate solutions. With the Climate Initiative, he does that by creating state-level policy toolkits and hosting programming on climate policy. As a youth representative in the Guam Youth Congress, he helped pass a plastic bag ban into Guam law.
Louise Stephens will be a co-speaker with Javan. She joins The Climate Initiative team after helping set the conservation strategy at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. She has conducted sustainability research for Walt Disney World and, before that, was with Manta Consulting and IMPACTS Research & Development where she focused on projects for nonprofit clients. Louise holds a bachelor's degree in history from Whitman College and a master's of business administration degree from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
Selina Leem is a climate justice, spoken word performer, and a poet from the large ocean nation of Aelōn̄ Kein Ad, now known as the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Crediting her late grandfather for her deep awareness of the fate of her home, she has made it her mission to globally raise awareness about the climate crisis. Representing the Marshall Islands at the age of 18, Leem was the youngest delegate at the COP21 (the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris). Alongside the Marshall Islands' Foreign Minister Tony deBrum, she delivered the closing statement for their country.
