Meet the Organizers

 

Laura Diaz, Founder

Laura Diaz is the Director of the Educator Collective for Environmental
Justice.  She works to empower and support formal and informal educators to imagine and co-create environmental justice curriculum.  She partners with frontline environmental justice communities to support community-driven research by partnering with community health workers and youth as they explore research questions whose answers can impact their community.  Laura is a Ph.D. student in Environmental Health Sciences at UC Berkeley where she utilizes biomarkers to study the subcellular impact of air pollution exposure in frontline environmental justice children.  She is a former High School Educator and Science Friday Educator who understands the profound
impact that educators play within their school communities and beyond.

 

Samrat Pathania, Co-Founder

Samrat Pathania grew up in India. His childhood love for science and mathematics culminated in a degree in mechanical engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur (India). After working several years as a software engineer with various multi-national corporations, Samrat became a teacher and currently teaches physics, mathematics, and software programming courses at Wallkill High School. He is a New York State Master Teacher Emeritus and was named the sole winner of the 2017 STEM Teacher Scholarship from the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. Samrat is former chair and coordinator of the New Paltz Climate Action Coalition. He is a passionate advocate for inquiry-based and climate solutions-centered STEM education, inside and outside the classroom. He lives in New Paltz, NY with his family in a net-zero home.

 

Zoel Quiñónez

Dr. Zoel Quiñónez grew up in San Francisco’s Mission District, a
predominantly Latino community historically and presently subjected to
under-resourcing and disproportionately over-exposed to injustice. He is currently a Pediatric Cardiovascular Anesthesiologist and a clinical
researcher at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and Stanford University
and treasurer and board member of the Educator Collective for Environmental Justice. His research focuses on outcomes evaluation in children undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease and on the integration of patient-centered outcomes in outcome metrics.  He also focuses on equity and justice issues in the delivery of medical technologies and services related to the care of children.  He currently uses geospatial analysis for mapping gaps in access to these services and technologies.

 

Michelle Mazzeo

Michelle is an educator, social and environmental justice advocate who has worked in k-12 education for over 10 years. Michelle completed her Masters in Educational Leadership at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has organized and facilitated design thinking and action focused workshops for educators focused on sustainability education. She is currently teaching elementary school in the Bay Area.

 

Michelle spends her free time singing and playing guitar, gardening and running!

 

Gabriel Trevino, Lead Youth Organizer

Gabriel Trevino grew up in the Bay Area where he developed a unique perspective on how environmental injustices impact lower income communities from something as simple as his drive to school everyday. A previous student of Laura Diaz, he got to learn from the master about project based learning. He aims to impact and teach others about the practicality it holds in solving real world issues. This is where his passion about sustainability and environmental justice was cultivated.

 

Gabriel was a presenter at the 2018 Drawdown international conference, has experience co-teaching AP Environmental Science courses, was a key member and founder of Youth Environmental Activists in high school, and is now studying Environmental Sciences at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo State University. His creative mind, combined with the careful guidance of caring parents and teachers, has allowed Gabriel to achieve one of his life-long dreams in being a part of a non-profit. Gabriel is interested in garnering community involvement and building the discussion around environmental justice. 

In his free time Gabriel enjoys being surrounded by nature at places like beaches or forests, is a runner, is learning piano, and loves getting to know new people.