Color Of Water
Elevating Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and other voices of color to change the narrative around water.
Cyatharine Alias
Center for Neighborhood Technology
Olga Morales
Rural Community Assistance Partnership Incorporated
Felice Green
Milwaukee Water Commons
Damian Shapes Padilla
Spirit Rock Consulting
Bridget Ray
Washington State Department of Commerce
Rob Larson
Grand Valley State University
Arohi Sharma
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Rene Henery
Trout Unlimited/ University of Nevada, Reno
Heather Tanana
University of Denver Sturm College of Law
Cate Mingoya-LaFortune
Groundwork USA
Cindy Donis
East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice
Jessica Thrasher
Colorado State University
Kabir Thatte
The Vessel Collective
Pedro Hernandez
GreenLatinos
Ehab Meselhe
Tulane University
Mallika Nocco
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Monica Driggers
Massachusetts Rivers Alliance
Pita Juarez
Comms Consultant
Bre’Shaun Reddick
Alliance for the Great Lakes
Shama Perveen
Ceres
Jaiden Willeto
Northern Arizona University / K'é Infoshop
Ayako Tischler
Xylem
Usman Mahmood
Bayou City Waterkeeper
Emily Warren Armitano
Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation
Angela Mooney D’Arcy
Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples
Daniela Sherrill
ASU / AZ Water for All
Andrian Lee
BCM Environmental and Land Law, PLLC
Ngodoo Atume
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources
Charming Evelyn
OceanWell Water
Nataly Escobedo Garcia
Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability
Walt Walker
TYLin
Gia Moreno
Hood Community Council
Shandin Pete
University of British Columbia
Angela M Chalk
Healthy Community Resources Services
Ayanna Jolivet Mccloud
Bayou City Waterkeeper
Patricia Lindsay-Harvey
Willingboro Municipal Utilities Authority
Nadine Robertson
Veolia North America
Ed Marin
Louisville Water
Michael Méndez
UC Irvine
Vicky Espinoza
CaliWaterAg
Crystal Davis
National Parks Conservation Association
Charles Cassagnol
Western Ecology, LLC
Martin Griffin
Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District
Rhea Drozdenko
Connecticut River Conservancy
Jahan Taganova
City and County of Denver
Tiffany Sevilla
Greenprint Partners
Lucero Sanchez
San Diego Coastkeeper
Afia Zakiya
Independent Africana Studies and EJ scholar-activist, currently Executive Director of Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation
Marce Gutiérrez-Graudiņš
Azul
Alyssa Senturk
California Water Data Consortium
Direlle Calica
Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI)
Nathaniel I Kollie
University of California Santa Cruz
Chakena Sims
NRDC
Marccus Hendricks
University of Maryland - College Park
Joy Banner
The Descendants Project
Roland Jones
CIS
Crystal Sanders-Alvarado
Seaworthy
Lenise Marrero
Brown and Caldwell
Nureen Faiza Anisha
Oregon State University
Briana Muñoz
Pacific Coast Carbon LLC
Daniel Cordalis
Native American Rights Fund
Nasim Pica
WSP in the U.S.
Keiko Wilkins
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Arsum Pathak
National Wildlife Federation
Huda Alkaff
Wisconsin Green Muslims
Carlos Moran
Northeast Trees
Maisah Khan
Regenerative Agriculture Foundation
Alai Reyes-Santos
Alaí Community Consulting
Diana Piña Yitbarek
NC Department of Environmental Quality
Victor Galvan
Denver Mayor's Office for Climate Action, Sustainability and Resilience
Harshini Ratnayaka
Save the Dunes
Ean Tafoya
GreenLatinos
Jazmin Ricks
University of Pennsylvania
Carlos Calderon
West Michigan Environmental Action Council
Sidney Opiyo
University of California, Santa Cruz
Cate Caldwell
Illinois Environmental Council
Khalid Osman
Stanford University
Hayat Rasul
LA County
Guadalupe Fernandez
Bayou City Waterkeeper
Quentin Stubbs
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Nieves Vazquez
Water For People
Andrea León-Grossmann
Vote Solar
Maritza Mendoza
Empower DC
Nikki Tulley
University of Arizona
Ani Jayakaran
Washington State University
Carolan Sonderegger
For Love of Water
Esteban Ortiz
The Gorge Association of Aspirations/La Asociacion de Aspiraciones del Gorge
Sapna Mulki
Environmental Policy Innovation Center
Chriscilia Cox
SUMA Consulting LLC
Ciara Horne
SBG Digital
Rhysea Agrawal
The Xylom
Sanjiv Sinha
Corvias Infrastructure Solutions, LLC.
Temiloluwa Akinyemi
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Nusrat Molla
Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University
Cheyanne Harris
Brown and Caldwell
Maria Elena Kennedy
Kennedy Communications, Inc
Angela Guyadeen
NRDC
Benu Amun Ra
S.A.C.R.Ed Eco-Center
Breanna Gonzalez
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
Newsha Ajami
Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Xochitl Bervera
Near Futures Projects/Water is Life Oysters
Joaquin Esquivel
California State Water Resources Control Board
John Echohawk
Native American Rights Fund
Frank Ruiz
The Office of U.S. Representative Raul Ruiz
Analise Rivero
California Trout
Marc Oliver Quijano
Jacobs
Brenda Coley
Milwaukee Water Commons
Aria Harris
TYLin
Nicole Nelson
Equity Legal Services, Inc
Thea Louis
MSC Industrial Supply Co.
Beth Roach
Sierra Club
Danielle Rivera
University of California Berkeley
Sonali Abraham
Pacific Institute
Priscila Alves
University of Maryland
Moisés Moreno-Rivera
Trust for Public Land
Ashwin Dhanasekar
Brown and Caldwell
Sri Vedachalam
Cisolutions
Veronica Garibay
Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability
Oluwole (OJ) McFoy
Houston Public Works
Fernando Ramirez
Bridges 2023 International
Tony Bridges
The Maryland General Assembly
Olga Cano
HUD
Alex Ortiz
Austin Water and Wastewater Commission
Alondra Hernandez-Bose
WEAT
Paula Buchanan
National Center for Domestic Preparedness (NCDP), Columbia Climate School
Ruthie Redmond
UC Berkeley
José M. Rodríguez-Flores
California State University, Monterey Bay
Vinicius Taguchi
North Carolina State University
Nahal G. Ipakchi
BluePoint Planning
Allen Townsend
World Wildlife Fund
Angel Santiago Fernandez-Bou
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)
Kedar Dabhadkar
Lam Research
Rachele Lopez
Justice Outside
Portia Shepherd
Blackbelt Women Rising
Tanasia Swift
Billion Oyster Project
Dezaraye Bagalayos
Allensworth Progressive Association
Jessica Dandridge-Smith
The Water Collaborative
Oday Salim
University of Michigan Law School
Cheyenne Holliday
Verde
Sarah Traore
The University of Texas at Austin
Chakena Sims
NRDC
Mariana Del Valle Prieto Cervantes
GreenLatinos
Jo Banner
The Descendants Project
Jose Luis Ortiz y Muniz
Greenroots Institute
Jahan Taganova
City and County of Denver
Nicole Chavas
Greenprint Partners
Val Schull
GreenLatinos
Pallavi Bharadwaj
SEG
Dira Johanif
Charles River Climate Compact
Pablo Ortiz
Union of Concerned Scientists
Silvia R. Gonzalez
UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute
Elizabeth Ruiz
CA State Water Resources Control Board
Mahtaab Bagherzadeh
NWF/Clean Water for All
Parsa Saffarinia
University of California, Davis
Bleu Adams
IndigeHub
Kimbaya Carriere
Nuxalk First Nation
Julian Gonzalez
Earthjustice
Julia Fay Bernal
Pueblo Action Alliance
Jasmine Walker
Ohio Environmental Council
Talia London
The Common Acre
Sandi Matsumoto
The Nature Conservancy
Adriana Renteria
State Water Board
André Sanchez
California Wilderness Coalition
Cathie Chavez-Morris
Equidad Group
Jeremy Orr
Earthjustice
Berhanu Sinshaw
University of California Merced
Jacob Bernal
American Rivers
Susana De Anda
Community Water Center
Billie Li
Wright-Pierce
Chauncey Foster
we.grow.eco
Alastair Bitsóí
Near the Water Media & Communications Group
Tanner Yess
Groundwork USA
Sydney Garcia
The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation
Emma Robbins
The Chapter House
Wendy “Poppy” Ferris-George
Ferris Institute
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About Us
The Color of Water Initiative was created by the Water Hub to build voice and visibility for people of color in the water movement. Our goal is to connect reporters with a more diverse set of experts, and build capacity for these experts to elevate the stories of their communities, which have often been left out of conversations around water.
From water access and drought response in the West to lead pipes and PFAS pollution in the Great Lakes to recurring flooding and water infrastructure failures in the South, Color of Water members have deep expertise and first-hand experience on water challenges and solutions all across the country.
Read the joint statement by Color of Water members on the importance of equity in the water world.
experts across the country
Register to Join our Expert Directory
If you identify as a person of color with expertise in water (including lived experience or ancestral knowledge) or work in fields that intersect with water (like health, farming, housing, planning, etc.) please submit your information to us!
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What are Color of Water members talking about?

California’s push to limit groundwater pumping could leave small farmers in the dust – Los Angeles Times
According to a new report, California groundwater regulations threaten to put many small farms out of business. [from Los Angeles Times]

A simple idea to bring clean drinking water to U.S. homes at a lower cost – Sustainability Accelerator
[from Sustainability Accelerator]

New federal law could bring running water to tribal homes, but states have concerns – NPR
More than 10,000 homes on Southwestern Indian reservations lack running water. This despite tribes substantial water rights. A new solution is being held up as