Fellows

Millerton, New York

Margot Seigle (they/them) is a community builder & cultural organizer who co-runs Linke Fligl (left wing in yiddish), a queer Jewish chicken farm and cultural organizing project that uses farming and gathering to grow a Jewish culture aligned with values of diasporism, anti-oppression and dreaming the world to come.

Margot deeply believes in the liberatory potential of song and is the co-creator of Let My People Sing!, a jewish singing retreat working to create spiritually & politically vibrant Jewish singing culture. They are also a co-owner at Random Harvest Market, where they help to uplift food producers historically marginzalized in the food system and to bring to life the community space. From 2010-2017, Margot was a member leader within Resource Generation and currently engages in wealth redistribution and reparations work on an individual and community-based level. They fill their time outside of work making music & magic, creating art, running around the woods, support-parenting, & shabbat-ing with dear friends.  Margot hails from the midwest and currently lives in the Hudson Valley on occupied Schagticoke land, but calls the Jewish diaspora home.

Boston, Massachusettes

Originally from the Midwest, Leilani is a queer, trans, Pilipinx earthworker and has been living, growing food, designing and installing landscapes, and teaching people of all ages how to grow through an environmental and racial justice lens Massachusetts since 2011. Continue reading

Leilani is passionate about community building, organizing, and fostering spaces that cultivate youth power. In addition to their food justice work at GreenRoots, they are an organizer with Boston PEAR (Pilipinx Education, Advocacy and Resources) and a member of the MA Commission on LGBTQ Youth.

Washington, D.C.

Lena Easton-Calabria is a Policy Analyst at the RAND Corporation, and former Urban Conservation Associate for TNC in Washington, DC. Continue reading

In this position, Lena worked to address stormwater and flooding challenges through the construction of green infrastructure, and has created a Community Designed Greenspace program. This program utilizes participatory processes to address conservation needs of cities including urban heat, stormwater, and human disconnection from nature. Lena was previously a National Geographic Young Explorer and conducted research in the Amazon rainforest, documenting traditional health systems and impacts of climate change and globalization in indigenous communities.

Lena holds a bachelor’s degree in Medical Anthropology and Global Health from the University of Washington and a Master’s of Science in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford. Through her dissertation, We’re Collateral Damage: Petrochemical Impacts, Marginalization, and Resistance in Louisiana’s Industrial Corridor, Lena worked closely with environmental justice communities in Louisiana. In her free time, Lena enjoys biking, meditating, walking through woods, drawing, and meeting new people.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Jodi Burshia (Laguna Pueblo, Diné, Hunkpapa Lakota, Assiniboine and Sioux) grew up on the Tohono O’otham reservation in southern Arizona.

She attended the University of Arizona in Tucson where she earned a BA and MA.Ed before moving to Albuquerque to be closer to her home community of the Laguna Pueblo and to pursue doctoral studies. She loves working in the classroom and has been a classroom educator since 2000. She has a daughter that is the light of her life and keeps her on her toes! Jodi is a doctoral student in the Department of Educational Leadership (ED Lead) at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and a member of the Native American Leadership in Education (NALE) cohort. In addition to doctoral studies, Jodi serves as an Adjunct English and Reading Instructor at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) where she works with Indigenous students to build and strengthen their reading, writing, and comprehension skills. She seeks comprehensive and multidisciplinary approaches to educational, linguistic, and social justice disparities, especially in Indigenous communities. In this role, she seeks to empower Indigenous students to envision and attain academic success as a step to pursuing their dreams and passions. As an educator and an educational activist, she has been able to collaborate with colleagues to bring awareness about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous women (MMIW)  issue to the SIPI campus.

Grand Blanc, Michigan

Jeff is a retired teacher who spent 9 years at Detroit Catholic Central and 25 years at Flint Community Schools.

He is married to an Early Childhood Educator who works with parents and children affected by the water crisis in Flint and they have a wonderful son. His perspective is informed by the thousands of powerful souls who filtered through his classroom and taught his so much. He likes to learn and laugh and if he can do them both together he counts it as a good day.