#NYClimateWeek has kicked off, & @uprose.bsky.social is making sure frontline leadership is at the center. ✊🏽🌎
During Azul's panel at #Upwell2025, @yeampierre.bsky.social, Executive Director of UPROSE, shared this powerful message about the importance of intergenerational collaboration. 🌊
If you attended #Upwell2025 this year, we sent you a survey this week to help us plan #Upwell2026
I've looked at some of the early responses and it really does help us. So if you attended, please take a few minutes to help us out. And if you can't find the link, ping me and I'll send it to you.
Green 2.0 was proud to serve on the planning committee for #upwell2025 with hosts: @aquariumconserv.bsky.social, @azuldotorg.bsky.social, @urbanoceanlab.bsky.social and partners in the planning committee: @americanprogress.bsky.social, @earthjustice.org, @nrdc.org and the Ocean Defense Initiative.
During #Upwell2025 Dr. Wei Ying Wong spoke about the "seduction of assimilation" -- about the push and pull of maintaining your parents' culture versus changing to the one you find yourself in now. That stuck with me, and I reflected on my own experience.
Celebrating #Upwell2025 with the amazing Dr. Val Schüll @stronglatine.bsky.social and Camila Cáceres of @greenlatinos.org and our ED @shanthareadyalonso.bsky.social
People who have complimented this shirt:
A bartender last night who took a photo with it
Three people on the metro today
Tons of attendees at #Upwell2025 including Mark the host who complimented it from behind the podium
This is not good for my megalomania
“We see your power and your movement building every day. And we want more people to know.” - Ayanna Melvin #Upwell2025
On speaking to New York policymakers vs. the U.S. Congress: “Sometimes I have to do code switching. You have to speak in a way people will understand.”
- Christopher Durosinmi
Director, Government & Community Affairs, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) #Upwell2025
On mentorship: “When you open a door behind you, do it with love. Do it hoping that person will walk through a lot more doors you didn’t even know were there. That’s what I do for my students.” - Dr. Melva Treviño Peña #Upwell2025
“There’s a seduction to assimilation. If you assimilate, you’ll be comfortable… I don’t want to be a leader who happens to be a woman of color. I want to be a woman of color leading. It’s who I am. I show a different kind of leadership CAN succeed, a different path from assimilation.” #Upwell2025
Happening now🗣️ #Upwell2025 Panel: The Real Journey to Representation in Leadership
Check out Dr. Melva Treviño Peña, Assistant Professor, University of Rhode Island who is also part of this year's cohort of #AzulRisingLeaders 🤩
“Through all the time I was going through University and early career I was usually the only non White person in the room. When I see these spaces like this conference and the America the Beautiful for All Coalition, I feel hope.” - Raimundo Espinoza of Conservación Consciencia #Upwell2025
💬🌎 Now at #Upwell2025: In Conversation with Raimundo Espinoza 🌊
Our amazing RLI alum Jamileth Picavia is moderating a conversation with Raimundo Espinoza, Founder of Conservación ConCiencia, on ocean conservation, equity & community resilience.
Happening at #UPWELL2025: Azul's Conservation Manager, Carlos Ochoa is moderating a panel discussion on Defending Federal Disaster Relief Programs, with:
🔵 Marilyn Zepeda Salazar
🔵 Sage Michael Pellet
🔵 Elizabeth Yeampierre
Elizabeth Yeampierre at #Upwell2025: We didn’t sit in our offices and guess, we asked people in the community what they needed and how we could help
Elizabeth Yeampierre at #Upwell2025 - We don’t need you to lead us as an outsider, we need technical support and funding to support community-driven solutions
#Upwell2025 conversation with Oceankind’s Nina Lagoacan on the conservation philanthropy sector: “There are very few programs that are working to diversify this field… I’ll be honest: money is power. We need to diversify who is funding.”
Marce Gutiérrez-Graudiņš is an America the Beautiful for All Coalition co-founding steering committee member and a force for justice everywhere! #Upwell2025
🌊 Next at #Upwell2025: Keeping the Momentum on Coastal Climate Solutions.
As federal protections roll back, state & local leaders are stepping up. A panel with Jainey Bavishi, Jessica Dandridge, Victoria Salinas and Mimi Tran explores how communities lead on climate resilience.
Mimi Tran at #Upwell2025 - in conversations with city planners dealing with sea level rise and extreme weather, the two gaps that come up the most often are funding and data. But Trump administration cuts are making all of this worse.
Jessica Dandridge at #Upwell2025: communities in New Orleans have generational trauma, and before we can talk about water with them, we need to sort out some complicated issues.
Everyone is welcome in our group, unless you’re rude.
#Upwell2025 Keynote Remarks by the Executive Director at America the Beautiful for All, @shanthareadyalonso.bsky.social 👏🏼
#Upwell2025 kicked off! With opening remarks from Azul Founder & Director Marce Gutiérrez-Graudiņš:
"Upwell is part of our resistance. And the courage we find in each other will carry us through this moment – and towards the future we are determined to create" 🌊✊🏽
Shantha Ready Alonso at #Upwell2025 : Nature loves diversity, and to be against diversity contradicts nature.
Power requires us to know each other, and lean on each other. This requires coalitions, which share resources, play to our strengths, and divvy up the work.
