Elizabeth Yeampierre

Elizabeth Yeampierre, Executive Director of the Brooklyn-based Latinx community organization UPROSE, is an internationally recognized Puerto Rican attorney and environmental and climate justice leader of African and Indigenous ancestry. She is a fierce advocate and trailblazer for community organizing around just, sustainable development, environmental justice, and community-led climate adaptation.

As a community leader and executive director at UPROSE, Yeampierre has led a multitude of successful urban sustainability and environmental justice initiatives. She founded the NYC Climate Justice Youth Summit, a space for young BIPOC New Yorkers to learn how to engage their local communities in addressing the intersection of racial justice and climate change. In response to Superstorm Sandy in 2012, Yeampierre founded New York City’s first grassroots-led, climate adaptation and community resiliency planning project the Climate Justice Center. Yeampierre has been a speaker at local, national and international forums including Sage Paris 2015, 2016 GRI Amsterdam, Oxford, the Hague and the White House Forum on Environmental Justice. Her work has been featured in a variety of publications and media outlets.

“Preserving the legacy of our history of engaging in collective care and resiliency in the face of generational threats to our existence is a tribute to our ancestors and important lessons that must be preserved for future generations that are additionally threatened by climate change,” Yeampierre says. “We need to be aware of which climate stories get preserved—not just the mainstream stories of despair told by the elite, but also the resiliency and community solutions from the frontlines. It is an honor to be part of this year’s Preservation Week and shed light on the history of strength and the solutions shared by those in our community most susceptible to the impacts of climate change.”

Follow Elizabeth Yeampierre on Twitter with @yeampierre for conversations focusing on racial and climate justice.