Amaris Alanis Ribeiro is the Center Director of the North Park Village Nature Center of the Chicago Park District. Amaris has more than fifteen years of experience in environmental science education, coordinating community engagement strategies, and developing STEM-equity programs at nonprofits, museums, botanic gardens, and the outdoors. Amaris is interested in asset-based approaches in centering communities in environmental education. As part of her community science project with Thriving Earth, Amaris focused on co-creating climate change, critical ecology, and environmental justice approaches in engaging the immigrant community in Albany Park, which is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse neighborhoods in the country. Amaris currently serves on the Advisory Board for Environmentalists of Color, Illinois Green Alliance, and Organic Oneness. Amaris has a BS in Ecology, Ethology, and Evolution from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is completing a Master’s degree in Science Education from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Amaris is also a past participant of the Leadership Learning Labs (L3), One Sky Institute, and an ee360 Community EE Fellow. Amaris considers herself a city girl who always had a passion for nature, in both Chicago and Michoacán, her parents’ hometown in Mexico.

Hannah Zonnevylle, Project Manager: Hannah Zonnevylle (she/her/hers) is an aspiring ecologist and community science enthusiast! She recently graduated from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) with a B.S. in Earth and Environmental Sciences. During undergrad, she participated in three years of independent research, completing a senior honors thesis on tree nutrient cycling on Isle Royale, Michigan. These experiences ignited a passion for research as well as a desire to create and share engaging, empowering opportunities for scientific inquiry with her community. She currently serves as the External Partnerships and Development Coordinator for a Chicago- and St. Louis-based nonprofit called Gateway to the Great Outdoors, which works to bring a comprehensive and equitable environmental science education to students at low-income public schools. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, reading, playing soccer, and doing anything outside!

Dr. Akilah Martin is the daughter of Laurel and James Martin. She is first and
foremost in partnership with soil and water. She earned a BS degree in Soil
Science from Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University and her
Doctorate from Purdue University in Agricultural and Biological Engineering.
Dr. Martin previously held an Associate Professor and Associate Dean
position at DePaul University - School for New Learning, where she was an
award-winning facilitator of learning who engaged in scholarly pursuits and
mentored adult learners for over 13 years.

Her professional interests include enhancing individuals and communities’ relationships to environmental
and natural resources via the interrogation of the kaleidoscope of the term justice. Her teaching, learning,
and scholarly/research interests are holistically centered in connecting people and communities to the
multifaceted relationship between soil and water. How she journeys through, on, and with the Earth defines
who she is and the interconnectedness of her existence. She strives to have a vibrant, kinetic, energetic, and
symbiotic relationship with the Earth and its entities.

Katia Pilar Carranza is a sustainability organizer and researcher focused on improving the reciprocal interconnections between people and nature while increasing equity for underserved, migrant, and Indigenous people. Sustainability became her passion fifteen years ago when she learned that climate change is threatening the health of our people and environment. Since then, Katia became impassioned  to take action, and she has directed transdisciplinary initiatives focused on advancing the environmental and social vision of her communities. Katia has advanced equity and sustainability through her career and community organizing. She created an equitable engagement plan for the climate department in San Diego, and she developed recommendations for NRDC focused on advancing equitable sustainability in federal environmental programs. She also mobilized her underserved communities to transition a coal plant polluting her hometown, and she organized immigrant people to advocate for their rights. Last year, she founded the Together for Nature nonprofit in her hometown that is working on connecting underserved people and youth to nature and sustainability leadership. Katia is now pursuing a Master of Science in Natural Resource Sciences because she wants to better prepare for advancing the vision of her communities in sustainability planning. She is currently collaborating with the Indigenous Kinship Circle (IKC) in conducting research that supports the socioecological resilience of Indigenous people and compiling their priorities into strategy and implementing equitable engagement across North America as the American Bird Conservancy Conservation and Justice Fellow.