2026 Environmental Justice Symposium

Speaker Bio: Keynote

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mark! Lopez is a community organizer, father, leader, and storyteller rooted in a multigenerational legacy of activism in East Los Angeles. He has dedicated his career to environmental justice, from his time as a student at UC Santa Cruz, to teaching at California State University Northridge, UCLA Extension, and USC Keck School of Medicine, to his leadership at East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. mark! was awarded a Goldman Environmental Prize after leading a door-to-door campaign in East LA to expose decades of lead contamination from a nearby battery smelter, securing a $500 million cleanup for thousands of homes. mark! continues the fight against industrial polluters, leading grassroots movements and inspiring community leadership, calling for the closure of toxic incinerators to protect the health of frontline communities.

Speaker Bios: Panelists

Power

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Dr. Julie Maldonado is a public anthropologist and co-founder of the non-profit think-tank Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN), where she serves as Associate Director and leads the Disaster Resilience Program. Her work centers on climate change adaptation, disaster recovery, and community-based approaches to resilience, with a strong emphasis on participatory action research. She collaborates closely with Indigenous communities and supports Tribal climate adaptation planning through initiatives like the Lowlander Center, First Peoples’ Conservation Council of Louisiana, Rising Voices Changing Coasts Hub, and Tribal Well-Being for Seven Generations Program. Dr. Maldonado is also an associate professor at Future Generations University and a continuing lecturer in UCSB’s Environmental Studies Program. She has contributed as an author to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th U.S. National Climate Assessments, advancing interdisciplinary approaches to climate and disaster justice.

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Dr. Mona Damluji is an Assistant Professor of Film & Media Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, whose work explores media, energy, and infrastructure in the Middle East and its diasporas. Dr. Damluji received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, in Architecture, and has worked as a freelance producer and editing assistant for independent documentary filmmakers and television outlets, including PBS, NBC Olympics, and the National Geographic Channel. Bringing an interdisciplinary lens, her research examines how cultural production shapes understandings of oil, cities, and power. Her book Pipeline Cinema: The Cultural Infrastructure of Oil Extraction in Iran and Iraq examines the history of how multinational petroleum companies have shaped local cultural norms and global popular imaginaries of oil in the Middle East through film use and cultural sponsorship in the twentieth century. Dr. Damluji is a Peabody Award and Emmy Award-nominated producer of two seasons of the short documentary series The Secret Life of Muslims, and a co-curator of major exhibitions on Arab visual culture. Across her research, teaching, and creative work, she highlights underrepresented media histories and the cultural dimensions of energy systems. 

Place

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Nayamin Martinez is the Executive Director of the Central California Environmental Justice Network (CCEJN), and a leading advocate for environmental and public health equity in the San Joaquin Valley. Her work focuses on uplifting communities in this region facing disproportionate environmental burdens from air pollution and climate change. Martinez’s environmental justice work began supporting civic participation among immigrant communities in Fresno at the Binational Center for the Development of Oaxacan Indigenous Communities. In 2009, she earned her Master of Public Health from Fresno State with summa cum laude honors. After working for the Madera Department of Public Health, Martinez realized that she was seeking an organization to enable systemic change, leading her to CCEJN. Today, she serves on multiple advisory groups, including the Environmental Justice Advisory Group, the Community Stakeholder Advisory Committee of the UC Davis Environmental Health Science Core Center, and Californians for Pesticide Reform, where she continues to advocate for change that centers community voices.

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MariaElena Lopez is a Tribal Representative and member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation. As a cultural educator and certified naturalist, MariaElena educates the community about the Chumash relationships to the land, plants, animals, and ocean. Her work focuses on bridging communities and rebuilding relationships with our land and waters. MariaElena has been involved in land and water protection since the age of 19, advocating for environmental justice through the protection of her culture. As Tribal Chair, her work in environmental justice was shaped by the 2015 Plains All American oil spill, where she realized the importance of her people’s knowledge of the land in response efforts. MariaElena has served in nearly every position in her Tribal Council, a liaison to the City and County of Santa Barbara, and currently serves on the Advisory Council for the Chumash National Marine Sanctuary.

Possibilities

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Kimiko Russell-Halterman is a PhD Candidate and associate instructor, educator, and ocean advocate. Rooted in a deep connection to the sea, through wave riding and free diving, she brings a justice-centered lens to nature connection and outdoor education. After living and working on Pimu (Catalina Island), she joined the Brown Girl Surf community as an environmental education specialist and summer program manager, and serves as a curriculum advisor at Sea League. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Education, learning from Black and Brown youth leaders about how community-based, culturally sustaining outdoor education can be a powerful tool for restoring and celebrating the enduring relationships that Black, Indigenous, and all People of Color have always held with the natural world. 

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Dr. Timnit Kefela is an assistant professor of Environmental Science and Resource Management at CSU Channel Islands, where she centers environmental justice in her teaching. As a Bren School alum, with a PhD in environmental science and management, Timnit pivoted from traditional academic research to focus on how environmental science can address the lived experiences of marginalized communities. Timnit’s research examines contaminants such as microplastics in urban environments, work motivated by a commitment to making physical spaces healthy for communities of color, regardless of their proximity to "natural" environments. Through teaching, research, and advocacy, Timnit emphasizes the importance of environmental justice for anyone entering environmental fields and creates space for students to witness and name the injustices affecting communities