2025 News & Events

February 19, 2025

Climate change is a present-day global challenge that demands a global response. Higher frequency of extreme weather events, climate change-induced displacement, and socioeconomic volatility are just some symptoms of this omnipresent crisis. The impacts are deeply local, and so, too, are the solutions.

Though rarely in the spotlight, grassroots-driven activism, collaboration, and leadership have been paramount to deepen and broaden climate action, especially to care for and support those disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change. Movements and civil society organizations on the ground are fighting for a just transition, to give local people and communities a voice in decision-making, to ensure the rights of Indigenous peoples, and to guarantee fair wages and safe working conditions. Grassroots-driven action brings local expertise and practical insights that help shape more effective, people-centered policies and climate solutions, while also fostering the next generation of environmental and human rights advocates.

The webinar is made possible by a grant from the Gates Foundation.

Speakers

Moderator

Ash Enrici, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Philanthropic Studies; McKinney Family Fellow of Environmental Resilience and Philanthropy, IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

Panelists

• Atossa Soltani, Director of Global Strategy, Amazon Sacred Headwaters
• Elizabeth Wathuti, Founder, Green Generation Initiative
• Yash Ranga, Director of Strategy and Innovation, PYXERA Global, India Office

About the Speakers

Atossa Soltani is the Director of global strategy for the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative, an alliance of 30 indigenous nations in Ecuador and Peru working to permanently protect 86 million acres of rainforests in one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth. She is the founder and board president of Amazon Watch and served as the organization’s executive director for 18 years. Atossa helped co-found Artists for Amazonia to catalyze global action for the Amazon in response to the fires that engulfed the region in 2019. She is a member and contributing author to the Science Panel for the Amazon and is currently serving as a judge for the XPrize Rainforest competition for novel technologies that can expedite the monitoring of tropical biodiversity. In recognition for her life’s work as rainforests and indigenous rights campaigner, Atossa was named the Hillary Institute’s 2013 Global Laureate for Climate Leadership.

Elizabeth Wathuti, a dedicated environmentalist and dynamic young climate leader from Kenya. She is the Founder of the Green Generation Initiative and is leading the Wangari Maathai Foundation’s Youth Hub. Elizabeth’s is an active member of the Counties Advisory Committee for the Upper Tana Nairobi Water Fund and the youngest Presidential Appointee in Kenya as a Commissioner representing civil society and youth at the Nairobi Rivers Commission. She served as the Global South Youth Co-chair for the COP26 Civil Society and Youth Advisory Council and spearheaded the first African Youth Climate Assembly (ACYA)–a formal youth engagement mechanism for the Africa Climate Summit and is a youth council member of International Reserva: The Youth Land Trust.

Elizabeth is a proud recipient of numerous awards, such as the Wangari Maathai Scholarship Award, UN Young Champions of the Earth, TIME100, the Diana International Award, the Africa Green Person of the Year Award, the Young Climate Champion Award by the Global Climate Fund (GCF), The Commonwealth Youth Awards, the 2023 Amnesty International Chair Award–Ghent University, and the 2023 TIME Impact award.

Yash Ranga serves as the Director of Partnerships and Innovation at PYXERA Global, a community-driven nonprofit organization that accelerates systemic change through multi-stakeholder partnerships. He leads the organization’s efforts to formalize Northeast India’s first waste cooperative and the implementation of on the ground circular economy initiatives. Previously, Yash led the Jaipur Rugs Foundation known for its inclusive carpet value chain that linked 40,000 grassroots artisans with global markets in 60 countries. Featured in The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits, the socio-economic development model deployed by the Foundation is often referenced by the government, industry, media, and academia.

Yash is the co-founder of the Global Conscious Luxury Movement and served as an advisor of conscious fashion initiative OneXOne, Creatives for Our Future by Swarovski Foundation, and United Nations Office for Partnerships. As a Cordes Fellow, Yash represented India at

Opportunity Collaboration in Mexico, has been selected as Dasra Social Impact leaders in India, and sits on the board of Social Impact Enterprises in India and UK.

Dr. Ash Enrici is an assistant professor at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and proudly serves as a McKinney Family Fellow of Environmental Resilience and Philanthropy. Ash and her students collaboratively define the field of “environmental philanthropy” as a mosaic of intentional practices rooted in diverse traditions and ways of knowing. In her work, Ash aims to explore how these practices advance equity and well-being for current and future generations of all beings, recognizing our interconnectedness with the ecosystems that sustain life.

Her current research investigates how donors can support climate change mitigation and conservation in more equitable and effective ways. She is also developing a project that leverages dive tourism for coral reef restoration and coral futures. Having worked in Indonesia, Fiji, Palau, and the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, Ash brings a global perspective to environmental justice, climate change adaptation, and ocean conservation. She employs collaborative methods of knowledge co-production, ethnography, and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), while also studying how storytelling can spur positive environmental change.

Beyond her scholarship, Ash has served as a certified freediving instructor since 2015, reflecting her deep passion for the ocean. As a mother of two young children, Ash remains dedicated to exploring new ways of fostering meaningful connections between people and the environment to help ensure a more just and ecologically thriving future.