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Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru
Environmental Justice Warrior, Rhodes Scholar & Founder of Black Girl Environmentalist
Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru
Environmental Justice Warrior, Rhodes Scholar & Founder of Black Girl Environmentalist
Biography
For Wanjiku "Wawa" Gatheru, caring about the environment started early. While gardening with her mom and grandmother as a child, the conversations would often turn to saving the earth. The first-generation American of Kenyan descent became even more invested when taking an environmental science class in high school when she learned that social justice and climate issues were deeply intertwined. Everything suddenly became personal. “It was in this call I learned that the environment had everything to do with me,” she says. Her passion soon turned into activism.
Today, Wawa is a climate justice storyteller motivated to uplift the voices of those most adversely impacted by climate crisis. She has become a prominent voice of her generation, using the power of social media to share how communities of color and women have been adversely affected by climate change and the racist roots of the environmental movement.
Harnessing her academic background as a Rhodes Scholar and her work as a youth climate activist, Wawa’s life goal is to help create a climate movement made in the image of all of us. Wawa is the founder and executive director of Black Girl Environmentalist (BGE)—the only national organization dedicated to addressing the pipeline and pathway issues for Black girls, women and gender-expansive individuals in the climate sector. With 1,500 members and a digital community of over 60,000, BGE is one of the largest Black youth-led organizations in the country, according to Forbes.
Wawa is also an inaugural member of the National Environmental Youth Advisory Council of the EPA, the first federal youth-led advisory board in U.S. History. She is a Public Voices Fellow on the Climate Crisis with The OpEd Project, in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
Wawa sits on boards and advisory councils for Earthjustice, Climate Power, the Environmental Media Association, the National Parks Conservation Association, Good Energy and Sound Future.
For her work in collaboration with other organizers and activists, Wawa has been recognized as a Forbes 30 under 30 recipient, a 776 Fellow, a Young Changemaker at the 2023 Green Carpet Fashion Awards, Young Futurist by The Root, a Grist 50 FIXER, a Glamour College Woman of the Year and named a Climate Creator to Watch by Pique Action and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Passionate about bringing climate conversations into untraditional spaces, Wawa works collaboratively alongside other creatives, musicians and culture shapers to bring climate justice to the mainstream. In January 2023, Billie Eilish personally invited Wawa to join her on the first-ever digital cover of Vogue, alongside seven other climate activists.
Speaker Videos
How Generation Z Is Saving the Planet | The 2020 MAKERS Conference
One Planet, One Home
Radical Imagination
Future Earth "Climate Talk" with Kendall Jenner
Wawa Gatheru X Mark Ruffalo Instagram Live
Speech Topics
Environmental Justice & Racism
Study after study has shown that when it comes to the impact of climate change and other environmental hazards, communities of color are disproportionately affected because of the historic and continuing impacts of colonialism, racism and inequality. And yet, these are the same people who are almost always left out of the conversations on how to help. Environmental warrior Wanjiku "Wawa" Gatheru, founder of the Black Girl Environmentalist organization, means to change all of that. Her mission, she says, is to ensure the environmental movement is as inclusive as possible. In this talk, Gatheru addresses the effects of climate change on marginalized communities and the racist roots of the environmental movement. She also unveils the decades-long contributions communities of color have had in the environmental movement. Sharing the stories of communities of color fighting for a just climate future, she speaks on the need for a new climate agenda that can develop a climate movement made in the image of all of us.
Food Insecurity & How We Can Help
For Wanjiku "Wawa" Gatheru, founder of the Black Girl Environmentalist organization, her interest in food insecurity started early. She grew up gardening with her mother and grandmother and conversations while they worked centered a lot around food justice and agriculture. It’s a subject that is truly dear to her heart. When she headed to college at The University of Connecticut, that concern continued. As co-founder of the UConn Access to Food Effort (UCAFE), Wawa created and distributed the first campus-wide food insecurity survey at any public college in the state. Her research has since been cited in U.S. Senator Chris Murphy’s “The Hidden Cost of College” report and referenced in the creation of both state and federal policy. As part of her grant, she also created pop-up food closets across campus that offered free, healthy groceries. In this talk, Gatheru shares how and why food insecurity continues to be a problem—more than 42 million Americans, including 13 million children, experienced food insecurity in 2021. And she discusses solutions to reduce food insecurity, increase access and how we can all easily help.
Everyone Can Be an Environmentalist
Wanjiku "Wawa" Gatheru has one main mission when it comes to her climate justice activism: to ensure the environmental movement is as inclusive as possible. She’s passionate about the interaction between climate justice, racial justice, antiracism and gender equality. And she continues to work on it every day. That’s why she created Black Girl Environmentalist, an online community for underrepresented voices in the environmental movement. “I founded my organization Black Girl Environmentalist because I’d like to see more people of color cultivate intentional communities around themselves,” she said in an interview with Green Matters. In this talk, Gatheru shares the story of how she created the Black Girl Environmentalist organization and why it matters, how she works with other environmental organizations and the opportunity we all have to help the earth—no matter how young or old—starting with our relationships and communities.
The Future of Work for Gen Z
You’ve heard of quiet quitting, but what about “climate quitting?” In the age of the climate crisis, Gen Z has emerged as the climate career generation—demanding more around climate change in the workplace and leaving if it isn't. In fact, over 40% of Gen Z and Millennials have changed jobs or plan to because of climate concerns. In this talk, Wanjiku "Wawa" Gatheru,
the founder and executive director of the largest Black youth-led climate organization in the country, Black Girl Environmentalist, shares her organization’s mission to create pathways for the next generation of climate leaders of color to gain access to the green economy space. In the midst of the anti-ESG and anti-DEI movement, Gen Z perspectives are being drowned out. For them, there is no future of work without a future planet. For Gen Z, and especially Gen Z of color, ESG and DEI commitments are not just an add-on—they are a growing requirement to accept or stay at a job. Learn how the future of work must be green and inclusive and why failing to prioritize both means being left behind.
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