Solar One

Youth Leadership Development Program Manager

(They/them)

Isabel Avina is climate justice organizer and educator from New York City, unceded Lenape Land, whose focus is supporting connection to the Earth. Isabel is passionate about coalition building as a means of strengthening people-powered movements and works to strengthen the local climate movement to meet the needs of front-line communities. Isabel is currently working at Solar One, a NYC-based energy and climate nonprofit, as Youth Leadership Development Program Manager. In this role, Isabel facilitates year-long programs for NYC youth climate organizers to develop by-youth, for-youth climate projects. Their work at Solar One is also oriented towards building NYC’s green jobs pipeline by coordinating employment opportunities in climate, energy and green buildings for Solar One students. 

Prior to Solar One, Isabel served as a consultant for many years, designing and piloting curricula, advocating for policy change, and facilitating multi-stakeholder education programs with the goal of amplifying justice-centered programming. Past collaborators include organizations like GrowNYC, the National Wildlife Federation, the Climate and Resilience Education Task Force, Start: Empowerment, and NYC’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). For DEP, Isabel wrote and released the first NYC-published curriculum on climate change. Through 2022-2023, Isabel supported their colleague Tom Roderick in developing a book titled Teach for Climate Justice: A Vision for Transforming Education, published by Harvard Education Press. Isabel received their Master’s degree in Bioethics from New York University and their Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from New York University. In 2021, Isabel moved to Upstate NY on unceded Mohican Land where they enjoy doing pottery on the weekends, swimming everyday in the summer, and living seasonally in connection with the land. Isabel ties their queer and neurodivergent identities to the work they do in their personal, creative, and professional pursuits.