as of August 2017
Alexa Ross is a full-time organizer with Philly Thrive, an environmental justice organization she co-founded with Dinah, Zein, and others that campaigns for the Right to Breathe. The work of cultivating a multi-racial basebuilding social movement organization for the past two years has given Alexa the opportunity to follow her instinct for locally-rooted, relationship-powered organizing as a key strategy for addressing the climate crisis. Alexa is also a Re-evaluation Co-Counseling teacher as a means for healing the damage the oppressive society has caused individuals that derails efforts to end structural oppression. Though a part of her heart will always be with her family & the ecosystems of Nebraska, Alexa currently lives in the same house Maypop got their start in in 2013.
Dinah DeWald was born and raised in Phoenix, AZ, where she began life as an Ayn Rand Objectivist and a climate change denier. After going to Swarthmore College, she was made to face racism, poverty, and the other logical conclusions of our current political system, leading to a pretty abrupt change in political beliefs. After working with future “Maypops” on a campaign to divest Swarthmore’s endowment from fossil fuels, she helped start the Maypop Collective after graduating. With Alexa and Zein, she co-founded Philly Thrive’s Right to Breathe campaign in late 2015 to fight environmental racism in the siting of fossil fuel infrastructure in Philly. In 2017, she moved to Lansing (with her partner, Will), and is currently working to build progressive power to take back Michigan. Dinah is also involved in the Re-evaluation Counseling community. She enjoys hikes and walks, reading period romance novels, and working in the garden.
Hannah Jones
Sachie Hayakawa grew up in Portland, OR and is now living and working in Seattle. She began organizing for environmental justice as a student at Swarthmore College, and then carried the work to West Philly, with the other members of the Maypop Collective. These days, Sachie is an organizer with the New Economy Coalition and coordinates the Reinvest in Our Power network, pushing forward community-led solutions for climate and economic justice. Recently, she started working with the Wildfire Project as a trainer and a member of the strategy team. Sachie is committed to building community resiliency, sovereignty, and self-determination.
Will Lawrence was born in Wisconsin and raised in East Lansing, MI, where he now lives. The Great Lakes were an important part of his childhood and helped draw him to environmental advocacy. In college, he was fortunate to work with incredible people resisting mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia, who help him see the connections between racism, climate change, economic inequality. Besides Maypop, he has worked with Momentum, the Fossil Fuel Divestment Student Network, and the US-Africa Network as a fundraiser and organizer. He is currently a volunteer with Sunrise, a new movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs by ending the political influence of billionaire fossil fuel executives.
Zein Nakhoda (he/him) is an organizer, trainer, and media-maker based in Philadelphia. Zein organized in the student fossil fuel divestment movement, co-founded Philly Thrive, a local environmental justice organization, is a LeftRoots cadre member, and currently Co-Director at Training for Change, a capacity-building organization rooted in experiential education. He’s has made media with Scribe Video Center, Media Mobilizing Project, and independently. In 2017, he finished his first feature film, Grounded While Walls Fall, a sci-fi documentary about the resilience practices of organizers and cultural workers in Philadelphia.