Draft:Wawa Gatheru

Wanjiku "Wawa" Gatheru is a climate justice advocate and the founder of Black Girl Environmentalist, a national organization focused on providing Black girls, women and non-binary people a pathway into the climate movement and empowering them to be a leader in their community.

Early Life
Gatheru is a first-generation American and the daughter of two Kenyan immigrants. She grew up in rural Pomfret, Connecticut where she spent a lot of time outdoors gardening with her mother and grandmother.

Her interest in climate activism began when she was 15 and took an environmental science class. There she learned about environmental justice and how there was a space that took into consideration how identities informed environmental experiences.

She attended the University of Connecticut, where in 2019, Gatheru became the first and only Black person in history to receive the Rhodes, Truman, and Udall scholarships.

She graduated magna cum laude in 2020 with a BA in Environmental Studies and a minor in Urban and Community Studies. She then went on to earn a Master's in Environmental Governance from the University of Oxford.

Black Girl Environmentalist
Gatheru founded Black Girl Environmentalist (BGE) in 2021 when she saw the limited access Black women and gender-expansive individuals had to the climate movement, and how climate change issues like droughts in Kenya and heat waves in American cities disproportionately affect Black communities.

Gatheru has said the idea for BGE began with an article she wrote for Vice about her experience as a Black environmental student that went viral. She received an overwhelming response from Black girls, who also felt underrepresented and unseen, and realized there was an opportunity to create a platform to represent them.

BGE started as an Instagram community and has become one of the largest Black youth-led organizations in the country with 1000+ members and a large digital community of over 40,000.

Climate Activism Work
Gatheru has stated that, "The climate space is notoriously white and Black youth are quite literally at the sidelines. Our programming works to empower the next generation of climate leaders of color through community empowerment, green workforce development, and narrative change – all created by the very demographic we seek to serve."

Gatheru continues to advocate for Black women and non-binary people by writing and contributing articles to publications such as Vogue and speaking at colleges, like Penn State and Yale, plus prominent news organizations,  like NPR and WNYC , about her story and her goal to create positive communities around climate activism.

In 2022, she partnered with Leah Thomas (Green Girl Leah), Climate Live, and Black Earth Kollektiv to host the UK's first black ecofeminist summit, which was featured in British Vogue.

She has become the first-ever activist board chair at the Environmental Media Association and the youngest member of the Earthjustice Council. Additionally, she sits on boards and advisory councils for Climate Power, the National Parks Conservation Association, Sound Future, and Good Energy.

Gatheru is also a Public Voices Fellow on the Climate Crisis with The OpEd Project, in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, Narrative Fellow at the All We Can Save Project, as well as a recent Revolutionary Power Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy, where she worked under the first-ever Deputy for Energy Justice to integrate energy justice in the federal landscape.

Gatheru and Black Girl Environmentalist have been featured in Vogue, The New York Times, LA Times, Forbes, National Geographic , Essence, Teen Vogue, Axios and Fast Company.

Achievements
In 2020, Gatheru was recognized as a Young Futurist by The Root, a Grist 50 FIXER, and a Glamour College Woman of the Year.

In 2021, she was Victoria's Secret PINK Purpose Project Winner.

In January 2023, musician Billie Eilish personally invited Gatheru to join her with 7 other climate activists on the first ever digital cover of Vogue.

In March 2023, she was named one of five Tom's of Maine Incubator winners, which supports BIPOC environmental activists.

Also in 2023, she was named Climate Creator to Watch by Pique Action and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, became a member of the first-ever National Environmental Youth Advisory Council at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and won a Trailblazer Award at the annual Net Zero Conference.

In 2024, Gatheru was named in Forbes 30 Under 30 List under Social Impact.