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 Join us for an electrifying keynote conversation with leading energy justice voices as we kick off the Tishman Environment and Design Center’s 20th-anniversary celebration!
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At this pivotal moment — with frontline communities continuing to push for bold, equitable climate solutions — how do we sustain the momentum and advance a just, clean energy transition?
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This dynamic, solutions-focused panel will highlight real-world, community-led projects driving energy justice, sharing insights on what’s working, what’s next, and how we keep building power despite systemic challenges.
Panelists:
Ajulo Othow — CEO/founder of EnerWealth Solutions, a solar and storage development company creating equitable, sustainable opportunities in rural communities. Ajulo is a Tishman Center EJ Disrupt Design Fellow and Grist Fixer 2024.
Rey León — Mayor of Huron, California, and founding executive director of The LEAP Institute (Latino Equity Advocacy & Policy), advancing climate justice, clean energy, and community development in California’s Central Valley; Grist Fixer 2019.
Enei Begaye (Diné & Tohono O’odham) — Executive Director of Native Movement, longtime Indigenous organizer, and advocate for environmental, economic, and climate justice; co-founder of the Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition and Black Mesa Water Coalition.
Moderator:
Dr. Tony G. Reames — Tishman Professor of Environmental Justice, Associate Professor at the University of Michigan, and former Deputy Director for Energy Justice at the U.S. Department of Energy.
Opening Artistic Grounding:
The event will begin with an electrifying, soul-stirring performance by TaÃna Asili, a dynamic singer, composer, interdisciplinary artist, and educator who carries on the traditions of her Puerto Rican ancestors. Her latest work, Fever Pitch, is more than a performance — it’s a celebration, a ritual, and a bold vision for a just and sustainable world.
Honoring Our Journey:
This event officially launches a yearlong celebration honoring two decades of the Tishman Center’s mission-driven work advancing research, design, policy, and movement-building — led by and for environmental justice communities.
Guided by the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing, we are a collaborative community of practice tackling the root causes of environmental and climate injustice — not just the symptoms. We work in solidarity with environmental justice communities, co-creating solutions that disrupt extractive models and redefine university-community partnerships.
This event is produced by the Tishman Environment and Design Center.Â
We extend our gratitude to this event's supporters
the President's Office at The New School and the NorthLight Foundation.Â
 Ajulo Othow is the CEO/founder of EnerWealth Solutions, a commercial and residential solar and storage development company dedicated to bringing equitable and sustainable opportunities to rural communities. Based in Oxford, North Carolina, their small team is committed to developing projects that benefit landowners, their local communities, and our shared environment.Â
Mayor Rey León is the Mayor of Huron, California, and the founder and executive director of The LEAP Institute (Latino Equity Advocacy & Policy), a valley-based Latino nonprofit organization. He was born in Fresno and raised in the Huron area. Currently based in Fresno County, he focuses on economic, environmental, transportation and climate justice, clean energy, green jobs, and community development. He has been working to ensure that environmental justice principles are advanced in the region’s institutions and culture.
Enei Begaye is of the Diné & Tohono O’odham nations, she is Tachiinii and To’dichiinii clans. Her partner is of the Gwich’in nation from Arctic Village, Alaska; together, they parent four children. Enei is a longtime community organizer, trainer, facilitator, and advocate around issues of environmental justice, economic justice, climate justice, and the rights of Indigenous peoples. Enei is a co-founder of and active member of the Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition (Alaska) and the Black Mesa Water Coalition (Arizona). As the executive director of Native Movement, Enei has been able to contribute to grassroots organizing efforts throughout Alaska. Native Movement provides critical administrative support for aligned community organizing groups while also guiding key statewide coalitions and leading numerous campaigns for the rights of Mother Earth and social justice. Enei was educated both on Dinétah –the land of her people– and the halls of Stanford University. She lives in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Dr. Tony Reames is the Tishman Professor of Environmental Justice and an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, where he founded the Urban Energy Justice Lab and the Energy Equity Project. He is also Director of the U-M SEAS Detroit Sustainability Clinic.
He was recently a presidential appointee in the Biden-Harris Administration serving as Deputy Director for Energy Justice and Principal Deputy Director for State and Community Energy Programs at the U.S. Department of Energy. He established the first-ever Office of Energy Justice Policy and Analysis in the Office of Energy Justice and Equity.
As a multidisciplinary scholar, with degrees in engineering and social science, his research investigates the fair and equitable access to affordable, reliable, clean energy, and explores the production and persistence of energy disparities across race, class, and place. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Public Administration from the University of Kansas, a Master of Engineering Management from Kansas State University, and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University. He is a licensed professional engineer and an U.S. Army Officer Veteran. He serves numerous boards and advisory committees.
Fever Pitch is more than a performance—it is a celebration, a ritual, and a bold vision for a just and sustainable world.
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At its heart is TaÃna Asili, a dynamic singer, composer, interdisciplinary artist, and educator carrying on the tradition of her Puerto Rican ancestors, fusing past and present struggles into one soulful and defiant voice.
She is celebrated by NPR, Rolling Stone, Billboard and Democracy Now! for her soulful, genre-blending music echoing calls for love and liberation. For the past 30 years she has offered energetic performances at diverse venues nationwide – from iconic stages such as Carnegie Hall, to renowned festivals like San Francisco Pride, to historic events like The Women’s March on Washingtons – inspiring audiences to dance to the rhythm of rebellion.Â
The liberation themes in Asili’s work are deeply rooted in her involvement in local and national activism, collaborating with numerous organizations throughout the years. As U.S. Coordinator for One Billion Rising and Board Chair of Soul Fire Farm, TaÃna’s artistic and activist work sits at the intersection of racial, gender, food, and climate justice.
Her Resiliencia album embodies this mission, drawing from interviews with women of color across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico—stories of resilience in the face of cancer, hurricanes, migration, and sexual violence. This project extended into an award-winning documentary series, offering a powerful musical and visual exploration of these lived experiences.
Additionally, during her residency with the Social Justice Portal Project, Asili created The Justice Suite, a multimedia trilogy of music and video interventions addressing abolition, climate justice, and economic democracy.Â
Fever Pitch, Asili’s latest interdisciplinary production, unites decades of her original work into a one-hour spectacle designed to ignite climate justice action on local, national, and global scales.
Dr. Ana Isabel Baptista is the Director, Tishman Environment and Design Center and an Associate Professor in the Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management graduate program at The New School University.
Dr. Baptista works on environmental justice policies, climate mitigation, renewable energy policies, environmental planning, zero waste systems, cumulative impacts analysis, and goods movement mitigation strategies.
Dr. Baptista was appointed to the Fourth New York City Panel on Climate Change, where she co-chairs the Equity Workgroup. She serves on the Executive Advisory Council of the Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation Hub (MACH). She is an Associate Editor for the Environmental Justice Journal and the Journal of Climate Resilience and Climate Justice.
Dr. Baptista is an active member of the Equitable and Just National Climate Platform and the Moving Forward Network. She is currently the principal investigator for the National Environmental Justice Movement Fellowship program housed at the Tishman Center.
Dr. Baptista serves on the Board of Trustees for the Victoria Foundation, GAIA, the Ironbound Community Corp., and the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance. Dr. Baptista is also an appointed member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC) Carbon Management Workgroup. Read the WHEJAC.Â
Daniel R. Tishman is Chairman and President Northlight foundation. Dan is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Montefiore Medicine and as a member of the boards of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, among others. Dan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Ecology and Planning from Evergreen State College and a Master of Science degree in Environmental Studies from Lesley College.
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Joel Towers is the 10th appointed President of The New School. Prior, Towers was a University Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design at Parsons School of Design in The School of Constructed Environments. He is also the Co-Director of The Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School. His work focuses on sustainability, resilience, and the development of policy and design-based solutions to climate change and the construction of healthy environments.Â
In 2009 President Towers was appointed Executive Dean of Parsons School of Design, serving as head of the college for a decade. Under his leadership, Parsons completed major curricular reforms, launched new graduate and undergraduate programs, and built an integrated 26,000 sq. ft. cross-disciplinary Making Center facility. With the intent to expand the school’s reach and research capabilities, he supported multiple industry leading design and research labs and expanded the ranks of full-time faculty.
Today the school is one of the most internationally diverse in the United States with nearly half of the undergraduate student body coming from other countries. Under President-elect Towers’ leadership, Parsons consistently ranked as the top school for Art and Design in the United States, a position it continues to hold today. Â
President Towers joined Parsons in 2004 as a member of the full-time faculty and the first Director of Sustainable Design and Urban Ecology. In 2006 he was named Associate Provost for Environmental Studies and founded The New School’s Tishman Environment and Design Center, which fosters the integration of bold design, policy, and social justice approaches to environmental issues to advance just and sustainable outcomes in collaboration with communities.
From 2007-2009 he was the founding Dean of The School of Design Strategies and Associate Dean of Parsons. In 2019 President-elect Towers was appointed by Mayor de Blasio to co-chair of The New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC). Climate change presents urgent, immediate, and long-term challenges to New York City. To confront these challenges and build a more resilient and equitable future for all New Yorkers, the NPCC was created by local law in 2012 to regularly assess the current state of the science on climate change and provide actionable policy-relevant recommendations for adaptation and mitigation to the Mayor and City Council. The panel recently completed its most recent report, NPCC4.
Committed to amplifying diverse voices, The New School offers more than a thousand public programs and events each year, providing fresh perspectives and unique learning opportunities. These lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and performances feature prominent and emerging artists, activists, and thought leaders.
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