GreenLatinos Announces the Unanimous Election of Three New Board Directors Adding Experience, Leadership, and Expertise to its Governance Oversight

WASHINGTON - Today, GreenLatinos announces the unanimous election of three new members to their Board of Directors. The expanded Board of Directors looks forward to continuing the growth and successes that GreenLatinos achieved in 2022 while building a strong and diverse GreenLatinos in 2023.

The three new board members are:

• Jackie Nuñez (Jacqueline Nuñez de Villavicencio), Founder, The Last Plastic Straw and Advocacy & Engagement Manager, Plastic Pollution Coalition;

• Raul Garcia, Legislative Director for Healthy Communities in the Policy & Legislation (PAL) Department at Earthjustice; and,

• Dr. Juan Declet-Barreto, Ph.D., Senior Social Scientist for Climate Vulnerability with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Following this announcement, GreenLatinos Founding President and CEO Mark Magaña, along with all three new Board Members, released the following statements:

“I’m thrilled and honored to welcome these three new highly esteemed board members to the GreenLatinos Familia to oversee the continued growth of the GreenLatinos comunidad, ensuring we stay effectively focused on our mission and vision. Their careers have been dedicated to the fight for the environmental liberation of our frontline comunidades, bringing with them their relationships and extensive knowledge of the disproportionate issues at the forefront of the climate crisis and environmental degradation.” - said Mark Magaña, GreenLatinos Founding President and CEO

“I look forward to working with the incredible GreenLatinos Community towards real solutions that center voices from the frontline communities disproportionately harmed by pollution, colonization, and violence. My goal is to shift culture away from normalizing disposability and injustice to instead celebrating and protecting human life and valuing sustainability and responsible, equitable stewardship of Earth.” - said Jackie Nuñez (Jacqueline Nuñez de Villavicencio), Founder, The Last Plastic Straw and Advocacy & Engagement Manager, Plastic Pollution Coalition

“I am eager and humbled to join the GreenLatinos Board because the organization means a lot to me and to the Latino community as a whole. The legacy developed by its visionary founders has created a place—for many, the only place—where we, as Latinos across the environmental and broader progressive movement, can feel en familia. At the same time, the organization has shown how it can harness our collective talents to make strides in our journey to seek environmental justice, address the climate crisis, and conserve the beauty and natural resources of our planet. As a Mexican immigrant of humble background with extensive experience working at the intersection of immigrant/Latino civil rights and environmental issues, I take this position with great honor and deep commitment. I will devote my knowledge as an attorney, advocate, and organizer to further develop GreenLatinos into an organization that reflects, lives, and breathes the values of our communities.” - said Raul Garcia, Legislative Director for Healthy Communities in the Policy & Legislation (PAL) Department at Earthjustice.

“I am joining the GreenLatinos Board as they strive to conduct research and advance policies that equitably address the disproportionate impacts of the compounding climate, social, economic, and political crises affecting our Latino communities across the United States and its territories. As a social and environmental scientist focused on understanding the where, how, and why of disproportionate impacts, I know science has a critical role to play in helping communities, advocates, policymakers, government officials, businesses, and scientists work together to implement solutions to these longstanding inequities.” - said Dr. Juan Declet-Barreto, Ph.D., Senior Social Scientist for Climate Vulnerability at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

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GreenLatinos is an active comunidad of Latino/a/x leaders, emboldened by the power and wisdom of our culture, united to demand equity and dismantle racism, resourced to win our environmental, conservation, and climate justice battles, and driven to secure our political, economic, cultural, and environmental liberation.