Confirmed Speakers
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Peggy Shepard
Executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice & Co-Chair of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council
Frances Beneicke
President Emerita of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Nina Gualinga
Ecuadorian Environmental and Indigenous Rights Activist
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Dr. Mariama Williams
Managing Partner, Integrated Policy Research Institute (IPRI)
Nima Shirazi
Vice President, Spitfire Strategies
Gerald Torres
Professor of Environmental Justice, Yale School of the Environment, Professor of Law, Yale Law School
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Don Chen
President, Surdna Foundation, a graduate of Yale College and the Yale School of the Environment
Jigar Shah
Co-Managing Partner, Multiplier
Jennifer Krill
Executive Director, EarthWorks
Amy Yeboah Quarkume, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Howard University | Dept. Earth, Environment and Equity
Mark Watson
Co Founder & President of Potlikker Capital Inc.
Christine Cordero
Zen Priest and Movement Strategist
Seun Oduwole
Co-Founder and Director, Living Objects
Dr. Thomas R. Easley
CEO, Easley Branch
Aya de Leon
Black Hive-M4BL/Climate novelist/Berkeley Poet Laureate/Bay Area ADJNCEA
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Tamara Toles O’Laughlin
President and CEO of Environmental Grantmakers and Founder of Climate Critical
Emma Humphris
Senior Researcher, The Society Library
J. Phillip Thompson
MIT Professor of Political Science and Urban Planning
Asha Brundage-Moore
Director of the Collaborative Clinic for Nonprofit Viability
Carol Santana
Legal Director, AmazoniAlerta
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Arielle V King
Environmental Strategist & Educator
Danny Haber
Executive Director of Highlands Center for Climate, Conservation, and Connectivity
David Cordero-Heredia
Professor of Law, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador & Visiting Fellow, Yale School of the Environment.
Rebecca Sullivan
Award winning Author, climate resilient community builder, Farmer, Founder Warndu & Co Culture Lab, Yale World Fellow
Susan Sturm
George M. Jaffin Professor of Law and Social Responsibility and Director of the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School.
Tony Tian-Ren Lin
Associate Director and Director of Research. Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School
What is Environmental Joy?
Joy is a transformative force with diverse meanings. It can be innate, born of grace, when one feels in harmony with nature, community, faith, culture, laws, and policy, or even the economy. It is what injustice can take from us and what we regain when healing and repair occur. Joy is a core piece of what we seek when working for justice. It is celebrated in community and can also be an expression of the goal that sustains the work for a better world.
Global EJ Conference 2025
The conference is a space that welcomes all voices for multi-disciplinary and multicultural dialogue and innovation, with the goal of helping the field of environmental and climate justice discover, showcase, and grow practices that alleviate suffering and generate well-being and joy. The Yale Center for Environmental Justice (YCEJ) is hosting the 7th Global Environmental Justice Conference “Writing the Future” from October 31st – November 1st. This year’s Environmental Joy will build on the historic post-election conference of 2024 to develop how environmental justice communities, policy-makers, and scholars will define the tools and policies that come next. At its core, the conference will center on joy to inspire hope, direction, and action.
Congress Scholarships
We acknowledge that there are many who do not have the economic means to access an event like this. We do not want the cost of registration, travel, or lodging to limit anyone's ability to attend and participate fully. If this applies to you, please complete the application below to be considered for full or partial registration and travel scholarship (lodging and flights/surface transportation -- no local transport will be covered) to this year's Yale Center for Environmental Justice (YCEJ) Global Conference, Environmental Joy. We encourage you to seek other funds for travel support as well.
The scholarship form will become available soon.
Sign up to receive conference updates at bit.ly/EJoy2025
