Lisa Hoyos is taking on climate deniers from the classroom to the statehouse, in all fifty states, as Director and Co-Founder of Climate Parents.
Hoyos, one of CLCV’s Environmental Leadership Award recipients on May 28th, is a long-time activist in the labor, environmental, and environmental justice movements in California. In her newest role at Climate Parents, which was founded in 2013, she is already achieving major victories. Early this year, Climate Parents was instrumental in convincing West Virginia officials to establish the strongest climate teaching standards in the state’s history. (Read about the win in the Charleston Gazette and the Washington Post.)
Hoyos founded Climate Parents because climate change is already affecting kids and communities everywhere. “Politics win out,” she has said. “Kids are caught in the crossfire.” She believes that, given the right information and organizing opportunities, parents will be especially motivated to work to advance the urgent and bold climate solutions our kids deserve.
Given her background, it’s no surprise Lisa has hit the ground running with Climate Parents. She has been a campaigner in the labor, environmental and EJ movements in California for over twenty years, most recently serving as the CA Director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a national organization committed to scaling up the clean energy economy and growing quality jobs. She has also run legislative and electoral campaigns with the national AFL-CIO and the South Bay Labor Council and worked on global justice campaigns with the Congress of South African Trade Unions. Earlier in her career, she worked with Greenpeace fighting toxic facilities in low-income communities and as a staffer to the CA Senate Natural Resources Committee under Senator Tom Hayden. She is also currently a member of the Board of Directors of Save The Bay.
Lisa is Latina and bilingual, and is committed to building a diverse movement of parents and families for climate action. On Twitter, Lisa describes herself as “Director and Co-Founder of @climateparents, mom of two sweet boys, wife, Latina, optimist, flute player.” She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and lives with her husband and two school age boys in San Francisco.
Lisa is one of three extraordinary leaders who are being honored at CLCV’s Northern California Environmental Leadership Awards to be held in San Francisco on Thursday, May 28th. For more information, visit http://www.ecovote.org/awards; to buy tickets or sponsor the event, visit http://www.ecovote.org/awards/support.
