Meet the Fellowship Staff
Huda Alkaff, Founder & Director with Wisconsin Green Muslims: Huda Alkaff is an ecologist, environmental educator, and the founder and director of Wisconsin Green Muslims. Huda’s higher education degrees are in Conservation Ecology, Sustainable Development, and Science/Environmental Education from the University of Georgia. Huda received recognitions from the 2015 White House Champions of Change for Faith Climate Justice Leaders, the 2016 Sierra Club Great Waters group Environmental Hero of the Year, the 2017 Environment America’s Voices for 100 percent Renewable Energy, and the 2018 Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education Eco-Justice Award.
For over two decades, Huda advocated for environmental justice, initiating Muslim and interfaith programs on energy and water conservation. Huda is the Program Manager for Solar Equity at Milwaukee Environmental Consortium and the Coordinator of Wisconsin Faith Communities for Equitable Solar that connects with over 5,000 people from 18 different faith traditions, spiritualities and various backgrounds. She co-chaired the US Climate Action Network 100% Equitable Renewable Energy Action Team. |
Nana Firman, the Senior Ambassador for GreenFaith, a global faith and spiritual environmental action network. She is deeply passionate with the green and blue sustainability of this beautiful brown earth. She has almost two decades of experience working with advocacy and awareness-raising on current environmental degradation and climate crisis, advocating urban sustainability for a better future, and developing green economy concepts and strategies. Previously, Nana directed WWF-Indonesia’s “Green Reconstruction” efforts during a post-tsunami recovery in her native home, Indonesia, and later developed an urban climate adaptation and mitigation initiative, in which she also engaged with Muslim leaders to create climate resiliency plans. She is featured among 20 Earth Defenders in “One Earth: People of Color Protecting Our Planet”. In the last several years, she has been involved in Islamic Society of North America's Green Masjid Project. And in 2015, she organized the Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change and later co-founded the Global Muslim Climate Network, which calls to all Muslim nations to transition from fossil-fuel to clean-energy based development. Nana was named as the White House Champion of Change for Climate Faith Leaders by the U.S. President Barack Obama. And recently, she received the Alfredo Sirkis Memorial Green Ring Award for climate activism excellence from the former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. Nana believes that environmental degradation and climate change can unite the world community to face the challenges together with a deep commitment to sustainability and environmental justice for all people. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design from University of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and a Master of Science in Urban Design from Pratt Institute, New York.
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Elizabeth Chun Hye (Liz) Lee serves as United Methodist Women’s Executive for Economic and Environmental Justice and Climate Justice Lead. Her primary area of work is around advancing climate justice with members, church, and society, through trainings, program development, partnerships, corporate engagement, advocacy, and solidarity. For Liz, climate justice is directly connected to gender justice, human rights, honoring God’s creation and faithful Christian witness. Prior to UMW, Liz served as the Director for Young Adult Mission Service at Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, developing over 100 global and national partnerships. Liz has also worked with the World Council of Churches’ United Nations Liaison Office, focused on human rights, gender justice, migration, indigenous people’s rights, and climate displacement. Liz also worked as a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs and a Williams in China Fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Asian Human Rights Commission. Liz has served as an alumni mentor with Women’s Earth Alliance and served on boards and executive teams including Global Youth Connect, Ecumenical Women at the United Nations, the World Student Christian Federation Trustees in the USA, and Nexus Korean American UMC network.
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Robin Lewis, a Maryland Environmental Justice activist, community organizer, public speaker and local entrepreneur, has a long history of helping organizations to become more sustainable and inclusive. She currently works as the Director of Programs and Quality Control for MANNA, Inc. a non-profit focused on helping low and moderate income residents with affordable housing options in the DC Metropolitan area.
Robin consults as an environmental justice activist, advocate, and community organizer for the non-profit Interfaith Power & Light on educating African American churches about energy and the environmental justice in Prince George’s County and Baltimore City. Robin worked on many environmental campaigns including: the National Wildlife Federation Sacred Grounds program, the ban on fracking in MD with Food and Water Watch, the ridding of the threat of trash incineration in PG, and the of Zero Waste planning task force in PG with Energy Justice Network. Robin volunteers on the Southern Green Line Coalition, the Air and Climate Public Advisory Committee at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Interfaith Power & Light Steering Committee, among other organizations. She serves as the Director of the Outreach and Social Justice Ministry at Beloved Community Church UCC and is a member on the UCC Climate Justice Council. Robin has BA in Economics and MBA from Rutgers University, MA in Sustainable Urban Planning concentrating on Climate Change from the George Washington University. Her graduate research focused on the socioeconomic aspects of sustainability in urban revitalization, such as issues relating to displacement, gentrification, and affordable housing. |
Annika Harley, the Program & Policy Associate with Creation Justice Ministries: Annika focuses most of her time on equitable access to drinkable water, young adult leadership, and Just Transition. This is Annika's second year on staff with the Faithful Climate Action Fellowship. Check out the Messenger magazine, the Star of Zion publication, and the Creation Justice blog to see some of her writing.
Before she started working at Creation Justice Ministries Annika worked at el Union de Afectados por Texaco in Quito, Ecuador. She also created & held the position of Environmental Justice Coordinator with On Earth Peace. In addition to her work Annika sits on the board of the Center for Sustainable Climate Solutions and is active in local DC environmental justice initiatives and actions. She also enjoys outdoor sports, bird-watching, comedy podcasts, and baking. |