Meet our Co-hort 21 Graduates!
Amanda
Amanda is a fourth-generation Angeleno with a passion for the outdoors, collective action, sports, and baked goods. She is a professor at Cal Poly Pomona, where she teaches courses in social work and sociology. Growing up, she didn’t have much experience with outdoor recreation, but she caught the bug when she went away for college and signed up for an outdoor rock-climbing trip in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. She saw the Milky Way for the first time, and she was sold. Since then, she has moved back home and is committed to learning more about how to protect our wilderness and make public lands more accessible and inclusive for diverse communities. In her free time, she loves hiking, camping, and backpacking with her awesome arborist husband Logan; enjoying delicious food with her educator parents; and decompressing with her two cats.
Amelia
Amelia is an outreach coordinator for the California Conservation Corps and is from South East Los Angeles. She loves giving back and being involved in the community. She is an artist and a nature lover, and tries to show her children the same teachings. She is very open to learning new things and doing her part to try and help make the world a better place.
David
David was born in East L.A and raised in La Puente, CA. He did his schooling and education within the San Gabriel Valley. Since he was a child, Art and Music have been his passion. He was taught by women how to draw and paint. As he grew older he evolved into one of the original urban artists of the San Gabriel Valley. Which he now uses and shares with his communities as a form of healing and therapy. Growing up in La Puente in the 80’s and 90’s, he encountered many traumatic events in his community that pushed him to be an instrument of Peace for those on a negative path. He feels that Art can be used as a form of medicine for people in our communities suffering from traumas and continuous toxic cycles. He began his experience as a Gang Intervention worker in 2013 until 2018 with an Agency called Going Beyond Boundaries who were subcontracted by S.E.A to provide Intervention services through G.R.Y.D for the Newton community of South Central L.A.
Deanna
Deanna was born, raised and currently resides in Whittier, CA. She is also known as Wandering Moon Spirit from the Gabrieleno-Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians. She currently is a property manager assisting people with housing but worked as a Microbiologist for many years being employed in several different disciplines such as research and development, biologics, medical devices and the food industry. In addition, she has been a photographer for over 25 years and has earned many awards in southern California’s art scene. She had a Baroque wedding with her high school sweetheart on Halloween nearly 32 years ago and they have three (3) children. She feels very connected to her community and the environment. She looks forward to joining the Nature for All Leadership Academy’s Cohort 21.
Madelinn
Madelinn is from Southeast Los Angeles and resides in El Sereno. They are currently working as a library assistant for the Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library. On their off days, they enjoy riding their bike through the neighborhood, gardening with their partner, and organizing a zine club with friends. Though a complete novice in anything nature related, they are dedicated to learning more ways of connecting with nature and with people.
Minoli
Minoli is a SoCal native plant enthusiast in Long Beach and has interned for a native land restoration site since May 2023. This internship has propelled them into the world of California ecology and native plant ecosystems. They are passionate about water conservation, and enjoys transforming yard spaces into native plant habitat gardens. They also love mangos, biking around Long Beach, and a recent interest in climbing/bouldering.
Priscilla
Priscilla (she/they) is an urban farmer. She was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley and continues to serve her community in any way she can. She grows vegetables and medicinal herbs as a trade amongst her community. She began growing food with her neighbors after going on a field trip to a farm in Oxnard, CA in kindergarten. She developed a passion for agriculture as she saw the importance of food accessibility. She graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a B.S. in Agricultural Sciences and minoring in Community & Urban Ag. She volunteers with LA Compost at Cottonwood Urban Farm in her spare time helping to divert food waste to convert it into nutritious compost.
Virak
Virak is the youngest of four children and the only male. His family fled their home country as refugees from Cambodia and arrived in the United States, where he would be their first child to be born here. He is also the first in his family to go to a university and completed his undergraduate degree with double majors in Ethnic Studies and Sociology at UC, Riverside. For the last decade, he has been a classroom educator and administrator in the Bay Area and now in Long Beach (Tongva land), where he grew up. He has a strong love for music, learning, community building and working towards a more just and balanced world.