Spokes People

To request appearances or interviews please contact Brianna, email: brianna [at] energyaction.net phone: (415) 305 1943.

Staff Spokes People

Jessy Tolkan

Executive Director of Programs, Energy Action Coalition
Jessy Tolkan has been actively involved in organizing young people for the past 8 years. She got her start as a student activist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she earned her degree in Political Science and African-American Studies. Organizing student vote coalitions is 2000 and 2002, helping to elect Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin to office, and engaging students in local politics through her own bid for the Madison City Council at age 19 laid the foundation for her work in the youth voter movement. After graduation, Jessy worked as the Wisconsin State Director for the New Voters Project, registering 130,000+ young voters across the state. In 2005, Jessy continued her electoral work with Young Democrats of America, helping to elect Governor Tim Kaine. In addition to campaign work Jessy has worked with the United States Student Association, lobbying and advocating on issues of educational affordability, social security, and overall educational access. Turning her attention to Climate Change, an issue she describes as the defining challenge of her generation, she currently serves as the Executive Director-Programs for the Energy Action Coalition.

Kari Fulton

Spokesperson for Energy Action Coalition partner Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative
Kari Fulton is the Campus Climate Challenge Coordinator for the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative and was a lead student organizer of the Power Shift 2007 youth summit on the climate crisis. Fulton works on mobilizing students of color, specifically at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to stand up for environmental and climate Justice. She is a graduate of the John H. Johnson School of Communications at Howard University and a Senior Fellow with Young People For (a program of People for the American Way). While attending Howard, a leading historically black university, Fulton tutored DC public school students as an AmeriCorp member. She also advocated for human rights as a board member of Amnesty International Howard University Chapter. In 2006, The Howard Chapter of Amnesty International wrote and successfully passed a resolution for an Amnesty International investigation into human rights violations associated with Hurricane Katrina. Fulton continues to advocate and organize for educational and human rights by building awareness of the connection between environmental and social justice amongst diverse audiences and organizations.

Liz Veazey

Spokesperson for EAC partner Southern Energy Network

While at the University of North Carolina, Liz Veazey led one of the first successful campus renewable energy campaigns in the southeast. She organized the first Southeast Student Renewable Energy Conference April 2-4, 2004, to engage other Southern schools beyond UNC in energy and climate work. She graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Science and with highest honors. In the summer of 2004 she became a co-founding member of Energy Action Coalition, which she has been actively involved with since then. She was co-chair of the Energy Action Coalition Steering Committee from 2006-2007 and is coordinating the Southern Energy Network, which works with students in the Southeast on clean energy and climate initiatives as part of Energy Action Coalition's Campus Climate Challenge. In late fall 2005, she attended the UN Climate Negotiations in Montreal and helped start www.itsgettinghotinhere.org.

Matt Stern

Spokesperson for EAC partner Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
Matt Stern was pulled out of the dark recesses of a scientific laboratory and into the world of climate organizing. While a student at the University of Pittsburgh, pursuing a degree in Chemistry, he spent long hours studying climate science and paleoclimatology. Through these studies, he quickly realized the need for climate action. After a short trip across the country via bicycle, he moved to Washington, DC bright eyed and idealistic. While his eyes remain bright and his mind idealistic, he now has a job as the Campus Campaign Coordinator for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. Matt is lucky enough to work with students across the Mid-Atlantic running the Campus Climate Challenge.

Energy Action Coalition Student Spokespeople

Carlos Rymer

Carlos Rymer is a student at Cornell University studying sustainable development. On campus, he leads the Sustainability Hub and co-leads KyotoNOW!. In the Spring of 2007, he co-led an effort to convince Cornell's administration to commit to the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment with a campus-wide petition drive and a strong media campaign. This semester (Fall 2007), he is leading a Sustainable Investment Coalition and several campus and community sustainability projects.

Off-campus, Carlos co-led the New Jersey Climate March in the Spring of 2007, which helped win a statewide campaign to pass the Global Warming Response Act, ground-breaking legislation that sets the first mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions to be 80% below 2006 levels by 2050. Carlos is also a Campus Organizer and New York State Coordinator for the Sierra Student Coalition. He is also Vice Chair for the D.C. March Committee of the Energy Action Coalition Powershift Planning Team, which is organizing a major action as part of Powershift 2007, the first national youth climate conference.

Outside of the U.S., Carlos works with Romana Sostenible in the Dominican Republic, which promotes sustainable development. Carlos is the Renewable Energy Director and is leading a Renewable Energy Campaign to convince the tourism sector to invest 2% of its annual demand (over U.S. $10 billion) in renewable energy projects to reach a national goal of climate neutrality by 2030, with the goal of showing real, urgent leadership on climate change.

Carlos is also regular blogger at It's Getting Hot In Here and The Energy Independent.
and The Morehouse Man.

Tony C. Anderson

 

Tony C. Anderson, a senior political philosophy major at Morehouse College.
He works with, SEEED or Students Endeavoring for Enlightened Environmental Decisions, will be launching a new green campaign called Let's Raise A Million campaign to raise one million energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs over a period of four years, which will be donated to low-income, directly effected households and communities.

Our Morehouse/Spelman Campus group, located in the west end of Atlanta, is fairly new, but we are already strong, focused, enthused, and are building much needed power and awareness on climate change, policy, and how low-income communities are disproportionately effected. The impact of LET'S RAISE A MILLION is HUGE! According to Energy Star, the joint initiative of the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy, once LET'S RAISE A MILLION is successful that's 78, 883.80 cars we'll be removing from the road (for one year), or the air pollution reduction equivalence of 93,483.80 acres of forest-JUST BY CHANGING ONE'S LIGHT BULBS!

Amy Marie Ortiz

Amy is a second year student at New College of Florida. Her interests lie with environmental justice, and creating change that will address the root causes of the climate crisis. Currently she's working with Southern Energy Network to create a amazing network of student activists throughout Florida and the Southeast, as well as working with Rainforest Action Network and her campus group, the Climate Justice Squad. She enjoys street theater and all forms of creative activism. When she isn't attempting to combat the evils of the fossil fuel and nuclear power industries, Amy enjoys bike riding, tree climbing, cooking and traveling.