Wind Beneath My Wings: Sources for Environmental Activism and Sustainable Solutions

Dalia Fernanda Márquez Añez serves as the co-chair of the Women’s Major Group’s and the women’s working group on ending plastic pollution. A lawyer from Venezuela, she is the founder of the NGO “Juventud Unida en Acción”, which empowers young people as agents of change in their community through education and training. She has served as the Regional Facilitator of the Major Groups for Latin America and the Caribbean for UNEP, and has been following the INC since the beginning, working to include a gender perspective. Her legal specialties are in commercial law, Human Rights Protection in the EU, and in environmental law. She has a master’s degree in Human Rights and Protection Systems from the Universidad Internacional de la Rioja, Spain.

Frankie Is a Husband of 24 Years, a proud Father, and Executive Director of the Society of Native Nations, an intertribal nonprofit dedicated to preserving Indigenous spirituality, culture, and way of life. As an environmental liaison for his Tribal Chief, Anthony Morales of the Gabrielino Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, he tirelessly advocates for The Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Xananine is a climate justice activist and indigenous rights defender. Co-founder of “Jna Tsjo,” a women and youth-led initiative to protect the ngiwa biocultural knowledge of food in the Valley of Tehuacán. Community organizer at Legado Gaia (LEGAIA) and the Stop Financing Factory Farming Coalition (S3F).

Green Anglicans is a movement started by the Anglican Church of Southern Africa which is focused on empowering, encouraging and holding the church accountable in caring for the earth that God has graciously placed us in.

She writes, “I am a Maryknoll Missioner and community organizer with extensive intercultural and international work experience. I am passionate about human rights, gender and climate justice, committed to conflict transformation and trauma healing. As a Maryknoll Missioner, most of my work has focused on women and youth in adversity as well as migrants and incarcerated persons.” A full bio is available online.

Grace Maghanga is the Miss Earth Kenya Air 2021 and founder of Action for Climate Empowerment, an organization that advocates for environmental sustainability through art. She is passionate about the nexus of environmental conservation, culture, arts, and society. Grace participates in various initiatives, including the UNEP major groups under youth and children for the Anglican Community, representing young people in the county climate change steering committee, coordinates youth programs in the Tsavo landscapes, and serves as a president’s fellow ambassador for the Global Peace Foundation.

Tiffany Tu is a Project Specialist at Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, focusing on humanitarian collaboration, youth development and UN engagement. Passionate about climate issues and community empowerment, she was a volunteer for over twenty years before joining Tzu Chi’s Global Partnership and Youth Development Department in 2020. Tiffany has experience in running community-led projects and youth programmes in the Asia-Pacific Region, and leads Tzu Chi’s climate engagements with the United Nations.

Grove is an eco-justice advocate bringing diverse grassroots perspectives to an international arena. As Director of Global Advocacy and Representative to the UN for the Temple of Understanding, she works on climate change, food sovereignty, economic justice, gender equality, and more.

Grove was Program Director for the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions and Managing Director for the Pluralism Project at Harvard University. Her Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School (1996) incorporated studies of organizational development and business management into the study of religion and ethics.

Grove is a writer and artist engaged in her home communities in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York.