Echo Park/Historic Filipinotown Environmental Stewardship Program

Sponsor: Rotary Club of Historic Filipinotown

Speakers:

Mr. Ellis began his environmental science career characterizing toxic chemical waste sites for the Environmental Protection Agency. Andrew also worked in the insurance risk management field and is currently retired. Andrew’s scientific education includes a bachelor’s degree in microbiology and a master of science degree in plant ecology. His current research interests are devoted to the study of paleontology, mass extinctions and their relation to climate change. Andrew has been a volunteer with The Climate Reality Project for over a decade and currently serves on the LA-Chapter Leadership Team as Legislative Committee Chair.  He has been active on environmental issues related to the extraction and burning of fossil fuels and nuclear power for his entire adult life.
Tania is the co-founder and co-host of Closing the Gap, a social justice podcast that shares stories on the connections between today’s global crises and their solutions. Tania graduated from Tufts University with a Master of Science in Animals and Public Policy. Through her writing and nature photography, she emphasizes the importance of protecting both people and the planet. She loves to snorkel, hike, and travel.
Nesha Abiraj is an International Human Rights Lawyer. She currently serves as the Diplomatic and Advocacy Liaison to Ocean States, with Stop Ecocide International, an organization seeking to make ecocide, which is broadly understood to mean, large scale and systematic destruction of nature, the 5th International Crime against Peace.

She also serves as an Ambassador to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and front line communities in coastal regions on climate justice and human rights. She previously worked with Human Rights Watch, Save the Children and continues to serve as a Lead Advocate for UNICEF USA pro bono on international humanitarian response relating to key poverty focused issues impacting the lives of children living in humanitarian and developmental settings including conflict zones. She is a trained, Climate Reality Leader, Nevada 2022 and Houston 2022.

Nesha also serves as a member of the US National Coalition to end early, forced and child marriages and is a US Advisory Board Member to Sahiyo, an NGO dedicated to ending the practice of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) both within the United States and Internationally. Both Child marriage and FGM/C are harmful practices which disproportionately affects the lives of women and girls and the climate crisis has only made this worse.

Nesha has worked on global human rights policies related to the rights of women, children, migrants and global health and human rights. Notably she worked on infectious diseases law and policy in India, China and the United States. In the last 2 years she worked on 5 successful human rights campaigns which resulted in child marriage being banned in the US States of Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New York and Massachusetts. She was awarded the Citation of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for her tireless work to protect children from early, forced and child marriages.  She has also done over a decade of humanitarian service in the aftermath of natural disasters and recently in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Caribbean and the United States.
Taylor Nichols is a Hollywood actor and Bicycle Advocate.

To join the monthly workshop email friendsofechoparkbranchlibrary@gmail.com