In December 2009, SustainUS will send a delegation of 25 young people ages 19-26 to the UN Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark. The group was selected through a competitive nation-wide process, and are using the months leading up to COP15 to build on work from last year's Poland delegation, educate themselves about the issues, network with other youth and organizations, fundraise to cover their costs, and lead the Climate Countdown campaign! Click the link below to meet our delegates!

Some of our delegates at our training camp in Washington, D.C., August 24th

Ayodele Akinpelu: Ayodele David Akinpelu is an aspiring senior at Wayne State University born in Brooklyn, New York but raised in Detroit, MI. Pursuing a Bachelors degree in Environmental Science with a minor in Bio-Science.  In the future, his focus will be on wildlife conservation and restoration ecology with a wide array of animals.  At Wayne State, Ayodele is currently the president with the student organization: Student Environmental Action Leaders (SEAL). After attending the recent Power Shift 2009 conference, he was energized and ready to make a positive impact both, locally and internationally. He has set goals to join the Forest Justice Campaign to increase awareness of rainforests, the need and importance of sustainable wood production and the negative impact deforestation has on indigenous people around the globe also the adverse affects of climate change.  The Forest Justice campaign is just what the Wayne State campus needs to become more environmentally sustainable.  Working with many nonprofit environmental organizations has taught me a lot and increased my experience in public policy and becoming a well rounded campaign coordinator.  When he's not trying to schedule a town hall meeting or studying Kepleer’s law, he's hanging out with friends, harvesting organic crops and bowling, and just trying to increase the green.  He also enjoy some good television (Discovery/Science Ch), baking brownies, updating my house/old school/classical music collection, and grass roots campaigning. he loves being outdoors during the summer and autumn planting trees, swiping invasive species and learning about earth and animals.  Ayodele gets a kick out of recycling and making green changes in his neighborhood and eventually the world.

Rachel Barge: Rachel Barge is director and founder of Campus InPower, a non-profit consulting firm specializing in innovative financial mechanisms to support campus sustainability.  In 2008-09, Rachel trained students and administrators from over 250 universities on strategies to create multi-million dollar sustainability funds capable of tackling their university's carbon footprints and empowering a new generation of student climate leaders.  Prior to founding CIP, Rachel was a Breakthrough Generation Fellow at the Breakthrough Institute, a clean energy and climate policy think tank based in Oakland, CA.  She is a winner of the David Brower Youth Award, Friends of the Earth Green Hero Award, Wild Gift Fellowship, Morris K. Udall Fellowship, and World Wildlife Fund Environmental Leadership Award.  Originally from Minnesota, Rachel earned a degree in Conservation and Resource Studies and Forestry at the University of California, Berkeley in 2008.  As an undergraduate, she co-created The Green Initiative Fund, a 10-year, $2 million student fee-based revolving loan that enacts large-scale energy, infrastructure, and sustainability upgrades to the campus. Rachel enjoys ultimate frisbee, hiking, yoga, and blogging for websites like SolveClimate.com.

Rishikesh Bhandary

Maggie Comstock: Maggie Comstock, originally from Kailua, Hawaii, is a senior at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. She is a Politics major concurrently pursuing an Environmental Studies minor. Maggie has worked on the Hill for Congresswoman Mazie Hirono (HI-2) and has also held internships in Ireland’s Parliament, the UK House of Commons, and the US Green Building Council. She is the co-founder of the Green Club at CUA, a student environmental organization, and has held several positions on the executive board of the College Democrats. Maggie hopes to pursue international environmental policy as a graduate degree and future career and is excited to be a part of the COP 15 delegation.

Laura Comer: Laura Comer grew up in Cleveland, OH and is graduating this December from Hofstra University in Long Island, NY where she is majoring in Political Science.  She started campus organizing by founding Students for a Greener Hofstra and the Senate Environmental Priorities Committee. When she is in NY, she is a nanny for 3 little boys in Queens.  Last summer, she completed the Greenpeace Organizing Term in DC and has had a hard time leaving the district ever since.  She spent the spring as the Government Relations Fellow for Energy Action Coalition, organizing the largest lobby day in history for Power Shift 09 and then moved to SustainUS as the Climate Program Fellow, structuring the domestic campaign. Studying international sustainability and the climate movement has taken her to Eastern Europe, Chiapas, Mexico and all over Iceland.  Besides traveling, she loves cooking, watching movies, and is trying very hard to learn French and to avoid graduating at all costs.

Lisa Curtis: Lisa Curtis is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area and is currently a rising Politics/Environmental Studies major at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. On-campus she is very involved with Whitman's Campus Climate Challenge and is the new Sustainability Coordinator for the college. She is also interested in community organizing and has worked in predominately Latino neighborhoods and with youth to decrease crime. Last summer, Lisa helped start a biodigester project in Western Kenya that used cow dung as an alternative source of fuel to wood harvest from the tropical rainforest. She is passionate about off-the-grid, renewable sources of energy in developing countries as a means to increase economic productivity and solve our climate crisis. Lisa interned at the United Nations Environment Programme in the fall in Washington D.C. where she helped start a youth network on environmental education for North America. Over the summer, she returned to D.C. as an intern in the White House Office of Political Affairs. In her spare time, she loves writing, dancing and getting outside!

Barry Fischer: Barry is currently a Fulbright Scholar in New Zealand, where he investigating opportunities for clean energy development in Pacific island nations. He graduated from Stanford University in 2008, where he earned a master's degree in environmental engineering (with a focus on renewable energy and atmospheric studies) and a bachelor's degree in economics. He wrote his undergraduate honors thesis about the role of economic incentives in Brazilian rainforest conservation.  Barry's studies and work experiences have enabled him to carry out policy consulting in Berlin, government and non-profit work in Washington DC, and participation in international conferences in Stockholm and Beijing.  Most recently, Barry served as a field organizer for Barack Obama's general election campaign in the suburbs of Denver.

Dominic Frongillo: A lifelong citizen of Caroline, New York, Dominic Frongillo made history when he was elected to Caroline's Town Council at age 22.  Now 26, he serves as his county's youngest-ever Deputy Town Supervisor. He leads Energy Independent Caroline, a team dedicated to local energy independence, which delivered one energy-saving light bulb to all 1,400 households in Caroline on April 2008. A graduate from Cornell University's College of Human Ecology in 2005, Dominic earned an independent degree with honors in Sustainable Community Development. Dominic participated in the United Nations climate negotiations in Bali in December 2007 as a member of the SustainUS youth delegation. Most recently, Dominic served as Outreach Director for the Don Barber for State Senate campaign in 2008, and now coordinates the Tompkins Energy Conservation Corps for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, New York.

Gemma Givens: Gemma Givens is of Mayan heritage from Guatemala.  Adopted as an infant, she was raised in an Irish American family and at age fourteen adopted again into a Native American family.  Following her passion for social, environmental, and political justice Gemma became an activist in 2006. Her work has focused on indigenous issues. At the 2009 Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change in Anchorage, Alaska she attended as a youth participant.  In 2008, she interned at the International Forum on Globalization in San Francisco where she met world-renowned activists. Her love of photography has steered her towards photojournalism. Gemma is currently a reporter for Reznetnews.org and is a 2009 graduate of the American Indian Journalism Institute at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.  She currently writes and is an editor for the Third World and Native American Student (TWANAS) Press at the University of California Santa Cruz where she will begin her second year in September.

Kyle Gracey: Kyle Gracey is a Harris Fellow and dual M.S. student studying public policy and geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago, where he is writing his thesis on the long-term job creation potential of clean energy generation. He serves on the university's Sustainability Council, where he helped launch a bike sharing program that will provides job training to at-risk youth. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with degrees in Ecological Economics, Values & Policy and Biochemistry/Biophysics. There, he was the President of EcoLogic and Vice President of Finance and founding member of the Engineers for a Sustainable World chapter. He also studied international developmental and environmental issues at The American University in Washington, DC and in Brazil, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates. A Truman Scholar, Kyle has worked in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation as an Environmental Policy Analyst and as an International Economist Intern in the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, and was an Education Docent at the National Aquarium. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the youth science & technology policy organization Student Pugwash USA, and is the University of Chicago Representative for both the Clinton Global Initiative and Campus Progress. He previously served as SustainUS Treasurer, Citizen Science Technical Board member, delegate to the Commission for Social Development and delegate and domestic coordinator for the Framework Convention on Climate Change. He has written for everything from the Worldwatch Institute & Climate Progress to his hometown newspaper, and been interviewed by media from Chicago radio to French documentaries to Japanese science wire reporters.

Jeff Gustafson: Jeff Gustafson, originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, is a graduate of the George Washington University. As a student at GWU, Jeff worked with the university’s environmental student groups to form the GW Sustainability Coalition and effectively implement a number of environmental initiatives.  In the larger community, Jeff established the D.C. Youth Environmental Alliance (DCYEA) to provide environmental youth in the nation’s capital with the skills necessary to affect positive change in their schools, communities, and government. He currently lives in Washington, DC, where he coordinates environmental youth programs and campaigns.

April Hillman: April was born in Shelburne, Vermont and will be starting her sophomore year at the University of Vermont in Burlington. She is dual-majoring in Environmental Science (with a concentration in Conservation Biology) and Enviromental Studies. April grew up visiting her family's camp on Maine's Moosehead Lake and exploring Vermonts biodiversity, which gave her a deep respect for nature and ecosystems. After paying more attention to the Bush Administration's failures in environmental protection and policy, she got involved with her high school's Environmental Action Club. Over the summer, she worked for the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps before going to Castleton State College in the fall. She helped jump start the EcoRep program before heading to Washington, DC for the spring semester to participate in the Greenpeace Organizing Term. While there, she recieved school credit for being trained in grassroots roganizing and activism. Having spent the summer as a fellow with the Avaaz Action Factory in europe working to pressure politiians to come up with a successful treaty in Copenahgen, she is excited to attend the actual negotiations in December. When not working for the climate, she enjoys being outdoors, reading, and eating lots of fruit.

Eleanor Johnston: Ellie Johnston is a senior at the University of North Carolina Asheville pursuing a major in biology. As co-chair of UNC Asheville's Active Students for a Healthy Environment, Ellie realized the power of youth involvement in generating change. She went on to begin the North Carolina Youth Climate Coalition and organize several summits to unite youth across the state. She has also worked in her campus Student Government Association as the Executive of Sustainability and is active regionally with the Southern Energy Network Steering Committee. Ellie has conducted research on university environmental literacy and also the effects of climate change on insect populations. She is excited to be a part of the SustainUS COP-15 delegation and to join others as we address climate change around the world.

Hannah Lee

Dominic MacCormack: Dominic MacCormack graduated in 2006 from the University of California, Davis with a degree in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning. At Davis, Dominic served on various student government committees dedicated to writing legislation and educating students about environmental and political issues on campus and across the country. While participating in SustainUS's Agents of Change program for the first time in 2006, he realized how diligent we all must be in order to push sustainability issues and social responsibility into the mainstream - and he has no plan on giving up. Dominic has since returned to his native San Francisco where he has worked as an environmental educator for Save the Bay, a non-profit dedicated to protecting, restoring, and educating the public about San Francisco Bay, and currently works for the federal government to administer the Clean Water Act. Dominic was a SustainUS policy co-coordinator for two years, and attended CSD 14, 15, and 16 and was a member of the last two COP delegations. In addition to playing trumpet in his spare time, Dominic loves to hike, swim, kayak, and cycle.

Therese Miranda: Therese is the Junior Fellow for Energy and Climate Change at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC.  She graduated from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 2009 with a degree in Science, Technology, and International Affairs: her coursework focused on Energy and Environmental Studies.  She spent a semester abroad in Athens, Greece, where she became interested in the specific challenges the country faced in attempting to develop its renewable energy resources.  Building off her experience abroad, she wrote an honors thesis about the technical, economic, social and political challenges surrounding the development of wind energy in Greece.  Therese has interned with the United Nations Association of the United States of America, where she created curriculum for middle and high school students about climate change, and the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, an organization that believes the US can be 100% carbon-free, nuclear-free by 2050.  She has also been involved with People to People International, an organization that promotes peace through understanding, since high school: most recently, she assisted PTPI in developing programming aimed at 18-25 year olds to increase membership retention. After completing her fellowship at the Carnegie Endowment, Therese plans to attend graduate school in a field relating to energy and sustainability.

Odette Mucha: Odette is a graduate student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where she is pursuing a master’s degree with a focus on International Environmental Policy. Odette began her work as an environmental advocate as a college student at Cornell University where she fought to improve the sustainability of both campus and large corporations. She then worked as a community organizer for Green Corps and ran several environmental campaigns in Knoxville, TN, Miami and Pensacola FL, and Madison, WI. She also served as a media spokesperson for the Sierra Club’s national headquarters, and has worked on the policies surrounding climate change for both Oxfam America and Ceres. She is thrilled to be attending COP-15 in Copenhagen!

Erin O'Sullivan: Passionate about the environment from the age of three, Erin O’Sullivan has advocated for smart, eco-friendly policies as the president of her high school and college sustainability groups as well as through internships with non-profits, for-profits, outdoor education centers and a gubernatorial campaign. Most recently she helped establish the DC Youth Environmental Alliance and coordinate its first Youth Summit, giving DC’s youth the skills, confidence and knowledge to become environmental leaders in their own schools. Erin graduated from American University with a degree in just about everything (Communication, Law, Economics and Government) in 2008 and has stayed in DC since then to work with the Environmental Defense Fund’s national climate campaign’s communication team. She is delighted to be a part of the Youth Delegation, and can’t wait to bring the team’s passion and ideas to Copenhagen!

Ebony Payne: Ebony Payne is a D.C. native and a recent graduate from School Without Walls high school in Washington D.C.  She spent her senior year researching the trade relations between the United States and China and the impacts on China's environment as a result of those ties.  She produced a public service announcement/music video on the topic which was shown at One D.C.'s Weaving Shared Visions Digital Storytelling screening (Click here to watch it).  She is currently interning with the Building Codes Assistance Project (BCAP), a project of the Alliance to Save Energy and NRDC, where she advocates for the adoption and implementation of energy efficient building codes for states.  Ebony testified infront of the DC City Council with the D.C. Youth Environmental Alliance to advocate for the Anacostia River Cleanup and Protection Act of 2009 which successfully passed and places a five cent tax on all paper and plastic bags in the city.  She plans to major in Environmental Science and International Relations.  This is her first delegation to the climate negotiations and is most excited to work with youth that are as dedicated to the environment as she is.

Valida Prentice: Valida Prentice graduated from the George Washington University with a degree in International Affairs in December 2007.  While at GW, she completed her honors thesis on sub-state level international cooperation on climate change mitigation.  Since graduating, Valida has worked in her hometown of Minneapolis as a policy analyst and communications & new media specialist for National Wind, a developer of large-scale, community-based wind energy.  This fall, she’ll be moving to Germany to begin a master’s program at the Free University of Berlin, where her studies of international climate and energy policy will be supported by the German government’s DAAD Scholarship.  Valida previously studied in Germany as an exchange student during both high school and college.  She also spent several years in her mother's hometown of Bangkok whilst growing up and a semester in Barcelona during college (curiously, the locations of the next AWG-KP and AWG-LCA sessions). These international experiences have been important in shaping her interest in international environmental policy. At the end of the day, when the policy analysis and new media communications work is done, she likes to juggle, relax at Minneapolis’s lakes, and write goofy rap songs about climate change and cap-and-trade.  As she gets more involved with policy research in preparation for COP-15, Valida is also excited to produce a few more songs on specific policies such as clean tech transfer funding and REDD.

Marielle Remillard: Marielle Remillard, a native to New Mexico, is interested in the interconnectedness between reliable water resources, the eradication of poverty, and the assurance of a sustainable future.  As a scientist, she recognizes the significant impact global climate change is having on international water resources.  Her research experiences range from hydraulic analysis of the Rio Grande in New Mexico to social and technological studies of innovations used to cope with severe water shortages in the Middle East.  She also founded the City of Sherman WaterCan Walk for Water to raise awareness and funds for potable water projects in eastern Africa.  Most recently, she worked on the North Slope of Alaska installing weather stations and evaluating climate trends for a private consulting firm, Geo-Watersheds Scientific.  She believes that science is useful for addressing the immediate issues at hand, but in order to deal with the severity of global warming and its influence on water resources, significant policy changes must be made.  In 2009, she graduated summa cum laude from Austin College with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics.  She is currently a candidate for a Masters of Science in Environmental Engineering at The Johns Hopkins University.

Andrew Tanabe:

Elizabeth Trombley: Elizabeth Trombley is a recent graduate from the University of Cincinnati.  She has a BA in International Affairs with a focus on the Middle East.  During this long process, she studied at the American University in Dubai under Clinton Scholarship program.  This experience helped shape her world view and awakened an interest in the Arab Gulf and issues pertaining to oil-exporting and rapidly industrializing nations. She has since become involved in environmental and sustainability issues with the recognition that climate challenges can be met and overcome oil-exporters and everyday citizens alike.  She has volunteered at Imago, a Cincinnati-based sustainability group, as well as the Unbound Movement, dedicated to combating human trafficking.  Currently she works at the Global Center of Greater Cincinnati.  An award-winning editorial cartoonist, Elizabeth enjoys drawing and painting in her free time, as well as gardening and communing with nature.

Ben Wessel: Ben Wessel is a 20-year-old student at Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT. Originally from Washington, DC, Ben has always felt drawn to the political process and finding government-based solutions to the world's toughest problems. His passion for climate advocacy has taken him all around the world, from the Svalbard Archipelago in Norway where he was part of the WWF's Voyage for the Future program with 17 other young people, to the UN Climate Negotiations in Poznan, Poland, where he was a member of SustainUS's COP14 delegation. At Middlebury, he is an active member of the Sunday Night Group, the environmental action group on campus, and spearheaded the group's efforts to bring almost 200 students from Vermont to DC for the Powershift 2009 conference. He is also a co-founder of the Green Finger Project. He is excited to take the Fall 2009 semester off from school to help pass strong climate legislation through the US Senate and prepare for the Copenhagen climate talks in December. He also hopes to fulfill his New Year's Resolution of meeting President Obama before the year is out. When not geeking out on the latest climate policy analysis, he can be found hiking or snowboarding in Vermont or rooting on his beloved New York Yankees.

Agents of Change Delegation Coordinators:

Jennie Hatch: Jennie is a senior at Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA, where she is working towards a degree in Peace and Justice Studies and Mathematics.  She is particularly interested in land use planning and climate change issues, and how mathematical modeling can be used for sustainable development applications.  She is an active member of the Sierra Student Coalition, where this summer she worked on the March to ReEnergize New Hampshire.  She helped start Massachusetts Youth Climate Action, a youth network in Massachusetts dedicated to fighting global warming.

Lauren Nutter: Lauren is currently a student at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine where she is working towards a degree in Human Ecology.  She is the Agents of Change Program Coordinator for an all-volunteer youth nonprofit, SustainUS. Through SustainUS, Lauren has volunteered to help organize and prepare youth delegations to the United Nations Climate Change Negotiations, Commission on Social Development and the Commission on Sustainable Development. Last December she traveled to Bali for the UNFCCC COP 13 negotiations. She is also an instructor for a non-profit, the Student Leadership Training Program. Through SLTP she has spent the past several summers teaching leadership skills to high school students throughout the New England area, and also tackling issues of bullying, abusive relationships, and issues of hate that students deal with every day. Recently Lauren worked with the Udall Foundation's Parks in Focus program and co-lead a trip in Maine.