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Announcing the candidates for the 2022 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award
UCLA is proud to announce 19 candidates for the sixth annual Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award.
The 2022 candidates include up-and-comers in a broad array of environmental fields, from funding solar projects to epidemiology and climate change. The candidates include experts in ecology and colonialism, lead contamination, and helping humans and lions live together harmoniously.
This year’s candidates:
- Natasha Allen, co-founder and CEO at illu
- Josh Brito, co-founder of MakeGrowLab
- Sweta Chakraborty, president of U.S. operations, and executive board member, We Don’t Have Time
- Lucia Coulter, director & co-founder of Lead Exposure Elimination Project
- Mary Creasman, CEO of the California Environmental Voters
- Resson Kantai Duff, deputy director of Ewaso Lions
- Kealoha Fox, senior advisor, Institute for Climate & Peace
- Maria Carolina Fujihara, founder and CEO of SINAI Technologies
- Dysmus Kisilu, founder of Solar Freeze
- Caleb Kruse, senior associate at Earthrise Media
- Vianey Moreno, youth organizer at Pacoima Beautiful
- Olugbenga Olubanjo, founder and CEO of Reeddi
- Jack Pan, founder and CEO of Ocean Motion Technologies
- Amber Reimondo, energy director, Grand Canyon Trust
- André Sanchez, advisory board member and Fresno regional program coordinator
- Aminath Shauna, Maldives’ minister of environment, climate change and technology
- Kelly Trott, vice president of deployment and impact at Imagine H2O
- Neil Vora, pandemic prevention fellow at Conservation International
- Tiana Williams-Claussen, director of the wildlife department of the Yurok Tribe
The 2022 candidates were nominated by leaders who have already made significant contributions to global environmental efforts. After careful review, a faculty committee will choose three finalists. Finalists will be presented to a panel of judges: Kara Hurst, head of worldwide sustainability at Amazon; Anousheh Ansari, CEO of the XPRIZE Foundation; Chanell Fletcher, deputy executive officer of environmental justice at California Air Resources Board; Lori Garver, CEO of the Earthrise Media; and Ida Levine, lead expert on policy and regulation for the board of Impact Investing Institute.
The judges will select a winner, who will be announced at a November ceremony. Winners receive $100,000 and finalists take home $5,000, made possible by a generous gift from the Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation.
The Pritzker Award community includes past winners, nominees and environmental leaders from around the world in the hopes that the community will find new ways to further their work and collaborate. Award alumni also team up with UCLA graduate students via an impact fellowship program. Last year’s winner, Farwiza Farhan, continues to use policy and advocacy to protect and restore the Leuser Ecosystem in Sumatra, Indonesia from the pressures of deforestation and climate change.
In the coming months, we’ll be sharing more about each of the 2022 candidates on our website and social media channels (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn). Please stay tuned as we celebrate and honor these emerging environmental leaders.
Meet the candidates
Meet the 2022 Pritzker Environmental Genius Award Candidates #1-5
Meet the 2022 Pritzker Environmental Genius Award Candidates #6-10
Meet the 2022 Pritzker Environmental Genius Award Candidates #11-15
Meet the 2022 Pritzker Environmental Genius Award Candidates #16-19
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