“Decisions about electric transmission can be complex and difficult to participate in, but they have real impacts on communities. This guide is intended to be an accessible resource, highlighting key decision points where advocacy groups can influence decision-making. Meaningful community participation is critical to ensure that clean energy transitions benefit environmental justice communities who have disproportionately faced the burdens of our electricity system. By connecting research, policy, and action, this guide supports the Tishman Center’s mission to advance climate justice and serves as a practical tool for shaping a more equitable energy future.”
Dr. Jennifer Ventrella recently earned her PhD in the Public and Urban Policy program at The New School while working as a research associate at the Tishman Center. Her dissertation, developed under the guidance of Dr. Ana Baptista, focuses on environmental justice and electric transmission. With support from the Tishman Center, Jen adapted her research into this practical guide as a resource for communities to engage in decisions about transmission lines and the power grid.
This past April, we had the honor of welcoming the EJ Disrupt Design Fellowship (EJDD) to our land, Borikén (Puerto Rico). As EJDD host committee chairs and tech coach, this experience was a collective invocation of memory, place, ancestry, and shared struggle across waters and generations.
By telling the story of Community First Fund’s innovative approach, we highlight the outcomes of their efforts and provide a replicable model and blueprint for others to follow—especially for those with the resources to do this work in the next four years. As the landscape of federal policy and investments continues to evolve, recent gains in support for environmental justice projects are already being threatened. The continued implementation of the federal Thriving Communities programs will undoubtedly face hurdles, necessitating further support and engagement with EJ groups and communities.
We hope this research report reflects recent achievements and calls on all EJ advocates to keep the momentum going. In this challenging new era, we must ensure that our stories inform and transform the policies and practices that affect our lives and our planet.
At Miltecayotl, the essence of the milpa is more than just a name; it is a guiding principle. This January, we stood alongside farmworkers, the original macehualli of our sacred Mother Earth, to provide support through our Farmworkers’ Food Distribution program. On January 17, 2025, Miltecayotl distributed 191 boxes of food to 793 individuals across 17 different zip codes in Arizona. Each box, whether destined for a family of two or ten, was more than a collection of essentials—it was a testament to the resilience and dignity of the people we serve.
As we transition into a new season and year, I want to share an important update about my professional journey with the broader Tishman Center community.
I am thrilled to start a new role as the Resource Mobilization Officer at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), an organization I've known and admired for a long time. My work will focus on resourcing GAIA’s mission to catalyze a global shift toward environmental justice by strengthening grassroots social movements that advance waste and pollution solutions, working across the globe. In this role, I will continue my efforts to move philanthropic resources to be more justice-centered, equitable, and accessible to the broader climate and environmental justice movement. This career shift feels like a natural continuation of my work here, as GAIA’s values deeply align with those of the Tishman Center.
From October 22 to 26, 2024, the second EJ Disrupt Design Fellowship cohort gathered in my home city of the Bay Area on the unceded lands of the Ohlone people.
As a local of Oakland and Richmond and the Operations and Events Manager at theTishman Environment and Design Center, welcoming EJ fellows and community leaders across Turtle Island, Hawai'i, and Puerto Rico was deeply personal. This retreat wasn't just about convening—it was about honoring our communities' resilience, complexity, and power.
Are you an undergraduate or graduate student at The New School? Are you excited about expanding your environmental, climate, and social justice research? Perhaps you're already working on a project and could benefit from a mentor and cohort to challenge and push your project to the next level. This Fellowship award is a minimum of $5,000.
Dear Tishman Environment and Design Center Community,
We proudly congratulate Joel Towers on the announcement of his new role as The New School's tenth president. In light of this transition, I am honored to share that I will now serve as the sole Director of the Tishman Environment and Design Center. Joel served as the founding director and, most recently, as co-director with me at the Tishman Center. In his multiple leadership roles within the University and beyond, Joel has championed the integration of climate justice and sustainability. We look forward to working closely with him to continue building this into the fabric of our community. As I begin my new role as Director, I am mindful of the rich legacy of the Center that our former Director, Michelle DePass, helped us relaunch. Under her leadership, we reimagined the Center's mission as a home for environmental justice movement support, and I look forward to continuing this mission as the Director.
In light of recent disheartening news, the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the Chevron Doctrine—severely restricting the EPA and other federal agencies from protecting our environment and public health—it's essential to find and share stories of hope and resilience. One such story comes from Darryl Molina Sarmiento, the 2024-2026 EJ Disrupt Design Fellow and Executive Director of Communities for a Better Environment (CBE).
When I joined the Tishman Environment and Design Center in August 2022 as a senior researcher, I knew I was in a unique position to practiceaction-based, community-centered research for the environmental and climate justice movement. Through my newly minted Ph.D. in public and urban policy and my dissertation research on environmental justice and participatory grantmaking, I already understood the value of community involvement in decision-making.
Congratulations to the new cohort of Aronson Fellows!
This year, we have the pleasure of welcoming our fourth cohort. We’ll spotlight our fellows throughout the year and showcase their work during Earth Month in the Spring of 2024. We’re happy to share that this year’s fellows are…
‘Rhythms of the Land,’ a multimedia documentary film, was screened during the 2023 Earth Month events at The New School. Present at the event was the director, Dr. Gail Myers, filmmaker and cultural anthropologist. The event was curated and moderated by Mike Harrington, Director of Sustainability Engagement, and Dr. Kristin Retnolds, Chair of Food Studies in the Schools for Public Engagement.
In the fall of 2022, the Tishman Center’s Student Awards granted funds to nine students to support their research or design work centering environmental justice; you can read about their project proposals in this blog post. We are excited to highlight the progress of some of our awardees here!
UPDATE: Danielle Deane-Ryan is on an intergovernmental personnel assignment from The New School to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
We are thrilled to have the opportunity to learn from and exchange ideas with Danielle Deane-Ryan, whom we welcomed over the summer as a Senior Fellow at the Tishman Center. Ms. Deane-Ryan will provide thought leadership and guidance on strategic planning and development, as well as on federal initiatives related to environmental justice, including Justice40, Thriving Communities, and the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
The Tishman Environment and Design Center invites you to join us on September 20 at 6:30 p.m. for our Keynote Climate Week Event, a dynamic panel discussion, at The New School.
As you may have seen from emails and posters around campus, The New School has recently started a Demand Response program to save energy over the summer. Ashley Kossakowski, Director of Energy and Sustainability at TNS, spoke with us to clarify how DR works, why it’s important, and how it will impact members of the TNS community.
An article by Dr. Ana Baptista, Associate Professor and co-director of the Tishman Center, was recently published in the open-source book Toxic Heritage: Legacies, Futures, and Environmental Injustice (edited by Elizabeth Kryder-Reid and Sarah May).
Dr. Baptista’s chapter “Environmental Justice Tours: Transformative Narratives of Struggle, Solidarity, and Activism” reflects on the power of Environmental Justice (EJ) tours to symbolically and concretely counteract the marginalization of communities that live in frontline EJ communities.
