Meet Mia, our new development and campaign coordinator!
“In a lot of ways we’re fighting for our lives, and it can be hard to pinpoint where my passion comes from–climate change is an enormous beast out there and to me, working on climate is not just stopping the largest crisis the world has ever seen but it’s about building a better future.”
At 22 years old, Mia is pretty impressive. She graduated from Reed College last year and comes to us with five years of experience organizing in Portland.
Mia grew up in LA in a culture where you can’t see an injustice and not speak up. Her beliefs pulled her into the world of environmental organizing as early as middle school, when she got her start organizing a public screening of An Inconvenient Truth. Mia has always traveled a lot, both with her family and solo, and over time her travels placed the local the environmental movement in the context of global justice. At Reed, she majored in Environmental Studies and Economics and wrote her senior thesis on equity and carbon pricing. She started organizing her freshman year with student-led climate and social justice groups.
During her freshman year Mia connected with outside environmental groups like the Community Alliance Against Coal, a spin off of Rising Tide, and worked on the campaign against coal exports. Rising Tide led to 350 when Mia, along with others in Portland Rising Tide, organized Summer Heat NW. Sitting down with Mia it’s clear that she loves the experiences coming out of organizing–improving her skill sets, forming deep relationships with a lot of organizers, and having fun along the way.
Mia feels pulled to 350PDX because she loves 350’s analysis of climate change: “it’s science-backed and rooted not in what’s easy but in what must be done.” And it’s important to her that 350PDX is not just a climate group but a climate justice group, because climate change as a problem is disproportionately affecting those already disenfranchised by our current system and any true solution must be equitable. Mia believes in self-determinism and her vision is that individuals will work together to create a movement that is more empowering and fulfilling than the existing system. Mia is constantly inspired by the people she works with and being part of the 350 network gives her a lot of hope.
Outside of her organizing, Mia is excited to spend the summer sitting on her porch, working in her garden and swimming in the river. She also spends time going to art shows, making crafts and pickling vegetables. She dreams of working really hard to solve the climate crisis before she’s thirty, and then just chilling out for the rest of her life building community.
