Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
On Earth Day 2025, the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School launched the Center’s 20th-anniversary celebration with an electrifying keynote featuring frontline and energy justice leaders sharing community-rooted clean energy solutions and powerful reflections on land, lineage, and leadership. From rural solar to Indigenous-led organizing, we explored what’s working, what’s next, and how we continue building power together.
Featuring:
Ajulo Othow – CEO/founder of EnerWealth Solutions, a solar development company committed to expanding access to sustainable energy in rural communities. We offer a residential solar and battery lease, making clean energy more accessible and affordable for homeowners. Based in Durham, North Carolina. Othow is a Tishman Center’s EJ Disrupt Design Fellow and a Grist Fixer 2024.
Rey León – Mayor of Huron, CA, and Executive Director of The LEAP Institute, advancing climate justice and clean energy in California’s Central Valley. Mayor León is a Grist Fixer 2019.
Enei Begaye (Diné & Tohono O’odham) – Executive Director of Native Movement, dedicated to building people power, rooted in an Indigenized worldview, toward healthy, sustainable, and just communities for all.
Dr. Tony G. Reames – Tishman Professor of Environmental Justice, University of Michigan; former Deputy Director for Energy Justice at the U.S. Department of Energy.
Taína Asili – Multidisciplinary artist and activist whose music and work uplift collective liberation.
Learn more:
EnerWealth Solutions: enerwealthsol.com
The LEAP Institute theleapinstitute.org
Native Movement: nativemovement.org
Taína Asili: tainaasili.com
Tishman Environment and Design Center: tishmancenter.org
Presented by: Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School, as it celebrates and reaffirms its mission as a collaborative community of practice that leverages research, policy, and design in accordance with the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing. The Center brings together research and action to tackle the root causes of climate and environmental injustice and commit to change in higher education practices within and beyond The New School.
This event was supported by the President's Office at The New School and the NorthLight Foundation.
On Earth Day 2025, the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School launched the Center’s 20th-anniversary celebration with an electrifying keynote featuring frontline and energy justice leaders sharing community-rooted clean energy solutions and powerful reflections on land, lineage, and leadership. From rural solar to Indigenous-led organizing, we explored what’s working, what’s next, and how we continue building power together.
Featuring:
Ajulo Othow – CEO/founder of EnerWealth Solutions, a solar development company committed to expanding access to sustainable energy in rural communities. We offer a residential solar and battery lease, making clean energy more accessible and affordable for homeowners. Based in Durham, North Carolina. Othow is a Tishman Center’s EJ Disrupt Design Fellow and a Grist Fixer 2024.
Rey León – Mayor of Huron, CA, and Executive Director of The LEAP Institute, advancing climate justice and clean energy in California’s Central Valley. Mayor León is a Grist Fixer 2019.
Enei Begaye (Diné & Tohono O’odham) – Executive Director of Native Movement, dedicated to building people power, rooted in an Indigenized worldview, toward healthy, sustainable, and just communities for all.
Dr. Tony G. Reames – Tishman Professor of Environmental Justice, University of Michigan; former Deputy Director for Energy Justice at the U.S. Department of Energy.
Taína Asili – Multidisciplinary artist and activist whose music and work uplift collective liberation.
Learn more:
EnerWealth Solutions: enerwealthsol.com
The LEAP Institute theleapinstitute.org
Native Movement: nativemovement.org
Taína Asili: tainaasili.com
Tishman Environment and Design Center: tishmancenter.org
Presented by: Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School, as it celebrates and reaffirms its mission as a collaborative community of practice that leverages research, policy, and design in accordance with the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing. The Center brings together research and action to tackle the root causes of climate and environmental injustice and commit to change in higher education practices within and beyond The New School.
This event was supported by the President's Office at The New School and the NorthLight Foundation.
