Wawa Gatheru is a GenZ climate activist, speaker, and founder passionate about cultivating a climate movement that is made in the image of all of us. In 2019, Wawa made national news as the first Black person in history to receive the Rhodes, Truman, and Udall scholarships. She is the founder and Executive Director of Black Girl Environmentalist, the only national organization dedicated to addressing the pathway and retention issue for Black girls and women in the climate sector. Under her leadership, BGE has grown as a trusted, national organization that has worked with 58 corporate and non-profit partners and hosted 40 events across our 10 HUB cities - in less than a year. In 2023 alone, BGE has been recognized in Vogue, the New York Times, NPR, Forbes, Essence, Teen Vogue, Axios, and more. Wawa is also a 776 Fellow and a Public Voices Fellow on the Climate Crisis with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication & The OpEd Project She sits on boards and advisory councils for Earth Justice, Climate Power, the Environmental Media Association, the National Parks Conservation Association, Sound Future, Good Energy, and Earth Percent. Wawa has been recognized as a Glamour College Woman of the Year, a Grist 50 Fixer, a Young Futurist by The Root, a Gucci Changemaker, named a Climate Creator to Watch by Pique Action and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and has given keynotes around the world. In January of 2023, musician Billie Eilish personally invited Wawa to join her on the first ever digital cover of Vogue alongside 7 other youth climate activists.