Land Acknowledgement
We currently work from the traditional land of the first people of Seattle, many tribes of various Coast Salish People, past and present, and we honor with gratitude and care the land itself and this land’s original people.
Climate Action Families shows up for indigenous causes and makes a regular donation to a local indigenous charity. We encourage and support all climate justice participants who are not indigenous themselves to learn about, engage with, and help restore power to their local indigenous neighbors.
Advancing Climate Justice Through Youth, Equity, and Education
At Climate Action Families (CAF), we believe that community-driven, youth-centered advocacy can lead to systemic change. Our work over the years has delivered measurable results that reinforce our commitment to environmental justice, sustainability, and policy progress. By investing in youth leadership and education, we are building the next generation of climate advocates who will shape the future of our communities.
Our History
Climate Action Families started out as Climate Change for Families in 2013, hosting the Washington chapter of Plant for the Planet. Our community trained over 600 youth in climate justice, and participated in countless actions. Lessons learned brought us to developing this movement, knowing we must move quickly, and with care, into a new world.
From passing major legislation to shaping national movements, we’re proud of the impact our youth and families have made for climate justice. Through bold organizing and youth-powered leadership, we:
Secured Clean Transportation Funding: Helped win $40M/year for Washington’s EV School Bus Bill—cutting emissions and protecting student health.
Defended Climate Leadership: Blocked Initiative 2117 with coalition partners, preserving WA’s role as a national climate justice leader.
Co-Founded Zero Hour: Helped launch this national, youth-led climate justice movement—home to powerful young voices like co-founder Jamie Margolin.
Took Legal Action: CAF youth sued state and federal governments through landmark Youth v. Gov climate lawsuits.
Raised Awareness on HBO: Featured in Saving My Tomorrow, a six-part documentary uplifting young environmental activists.
CAF’s core values are woven into the fabric of everything we do. Guided by our CREATIVE model, we commit to building a movement where every person is welcomed, respected, and empowered.
We foster Connection across generations, cultures, and communities, grounded in consent, mutual aid, and collaboration.
We nurture Resilience through practices that uplift joy, adaptability, and self-care in the face of adversity.
We advance Education that centers social justice, civic engagement, and environmental understanding.
We take Action by organizing together, advocating for just policies, and healing our communities and planet.
We honor Transformation as individuals and as a collective, embracing change and leadership at every level.
We lead with Inclusion, ensuring that marginalized voices shape our work and feel at home in our spaces.
We hold a bold Vision for a future shaped by equity, inspiration, and shared purpose.
And we uphold Equity through anti-racist practices and power-sharing across age, race, gender, ability, and identity.
At CAF we believe in a multi-dimensional approach to climate justice. Our work is guided by six core strategies for creating lasting change:
1. Personal Transformation
We support individual growth, leadership, and self-awareness—empowering people of all ages to step into their roles as changemakers.
2. Solutions Deployment
We take action by piloting and spreading sustainable, community-based solutions that respond to the real needs of people and the planet.
3. Legal & Policy Work
We advocate for systemic change through legislation, policy reforms, and civic engagement that promote justice and equity.
4. Community Organizing
We build collective power by nurturing local leadership, strengthening relationships, and creating inclusive spaces for action.
5. Cultural Influence
We shift narratives through art, storytelling, media, and education—changing hearts and minds to inspire a more just and sustainable world.
6. Healing People & Planet
We honor the deep connections between environmental restoration and community care, recognizing that true justice requires healing at every level.
Mission and Vision
Mission
We empower an intergenerational climate justice movement of youth, families, and friends building collective power to protect the people and planet we love at the speed and scale of transformation that climate science and justice require.
Our World Vision
We envision a future where communities flourish in harmony with the natural world, united by a shared sense of purpose, compassion, and reverence for the planet and each other. Diversity and creativity are celebrated, the inherent worth of every individual is recognized, and people work together in continually co-creating a world that is just, regenerative, and abundant for all.
Our Organizational Vision
We see our organization supporting the growth of a deeply connected, joyous, and powerful intergenerational climate justice movement in which we all belong, feel effective, and have the resources and support to experiment, explore, and build on our collective success. We have the freedom to transform and learn better ways to use our gifts, yet we know we deeply belong and can always find support and aligned spirits. We work strategically and quickly to interfere with activities that are responsible for destabilizing the climate and generating injustices, and we iteratively build towards a more just and intentional world. We continually reconnect with each other and this rare, irreplaceable planet and era of life.
Rick Gurango (he/him), Publicity Manager
Ricardo Gurango is a sophmore student at the University of Washington pursuing a degree in marketing while working as a Digital Manager at Climate Action Families. He was born in the Philippines but has lived in Seattle, WA since he was six. He's been an aspiring climate activist and has found his outlet through art, digital media, and writing. He likes drawing, making music, and cooking in his free time. He resides between his UW dorm and his family home, living with his parents and three little brothers. His long-term dream is to start a sustainable clothing business inspired by his Filipino heritage.
Maggie Chen (she/her), Program Developer
Maggie Chen is currently a sophmore pursuing Environmental Studies at the University of Washington. Born and raised in Georgia, Maggie is new to the Pacific Northwest but excited to explore Seattle’s unique environmental opportunities. During her time at UW, she aims to understand the nuanced relationship between food systems and the environment. After spending many summers meal-packing, she learned the importance of working together to solve issues, such as food inequity, that seem greater than ourselves. Through CAF, Maggie hopes to apply her past experiences and passion for environmental justice to foster a supportive environment for the youth and beyond. In her free time, Maggie enjoys running, crocheting, and baking.
Neelou Hematti (she/her), Practicum Intern
Neeloufar (Neelou) Hematti is an MSW student at the University of Washington. Neelou most recently worked as a communications specialist for Chicago Public Schools. She has a background in public relations, supporting clients on regulatory drug approvals, data communications, and disease education.
Originally from Madison, WI, Neelou attended the University of Michigan where she studied both the sciences and humanities. Her areas of focus include addressing structural oppression and education around the enmeshed nature of racial, economic, and environmental justice. She is excited to work with CAF’s community of youth and families to create joyful moments of liberation and foster community resilience.
Theresa Thiel (she/her), Practicum Intern
Theresa Thiel is interning with CAF while pursuing her Master of Social Work degree at the University of Washington. Across the Midwest, Yakima Valley, and Seattle, she has cultivated communities centered in intergenerational care, reciprocity, and collective wellbeing. She aspires to social justice through the transformation of community behavioral health systems. Outside of work and school, Theresa can be found reading, hiking, practicing yoga, and borrowing CDs from her local public library branch.
Jesse MacDonald (he/him), Practicum Intern
Jesse MacDonald is a graduate student at the University of Washington pursuing a Master of Social Work. He was born and raised in California and recently graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a dual degree in Psychological & Brain Sciences and Philosophy. Outside of his studies, he seeks out opportunities to bring people together by embracing creativity, such as building escape rooms in his apartment, designing board games, and playing the drums in local brass bands. During his time at UW and with Climate Action Families, Jesse is passionate about bringing greater engagement to the climate justice movement and using creativity to foster connection and inspiration in the community.
Ruby Barnes (she/her), Graphic Designer & Community Organizer
Ruby Barnes is a Graphic Designer and Community Organizer for Climate Action Families. She is a passionate young artist who recently graduated from Central Washington University with a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts specializing in Graphic Design and minors in Digital Marketing and Environmental Science. She's passionate about helping others and our planet, and she hopes that her design skills can make a difference in how our world consumes media and products.
Marii Herlinger (she/her), Community
Engagement Manager
Marii is Community Engagement Manager at Climate Action Families. She graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology. She brings experience in community organizing around a wide range of issues including refugee services, food security, elder support, anti-war and demilitarization work, and housing advocacy. She has been a youth facilitator for an anti-nuclear weapons coalition and has been trained in an Alternatives to Military Service program which prepares participants to introduce youth to peaceful and enriching options for life after high school. She is drawn to any community efforts working to further a culture of peace and justice, and is most fond of the grassroots level because she sees it as a site of immense power that can be accessed at any time by ordinary people working together. Her formative literary voices are bell hooks and Arundhati Roy.
When she’s not outside camping, hiking or scouting whales from the beach, she is probably at home reading or filling the pages of yet another journal with hopes and dreams for a safer and more just world.
Board of Directors
Dongmei Chen, Board Treasurer
Dongmei worked in publishing from 2010 to 2017. She was a Chinese editor, and treasurer for the literary translation organization Paper Republic. Climate became one of her passions when she moved to Seattle and became a mother in 2018. Now she works in the data field, and hopes to apply her new skills to climate-related work. Dongmei believe that youth and families are deeply affected by the climate crisis, resulting in feelings of grief, anxiety, and anger. She is convinced that there is significant potential to empower youths and families by offering them resources and tools to transform these emotions into powerful drivers for change.
Sue Lenander (she/her), Board Secretary
Sue is co-founder, former Board President and Board Secretary of Climate Action Families. Trained with Vice President Al Gore in 2015, she became a Climate Reality speaker and gives climate justice presentations at churches, community organizations, hospitals and schools. Her BA in child development helped in the role of Youth Program Coordinator for Seattle Plant for the Planet. She volunteers with 350 Seattle as a former Board and Leadership Team member and a proud Kayaktivist. Sue trained with Joanna Macy to facilitate Work that Reconnects climate grief groups to honor and process our pain for the Earth. Sue recently retired from Seattle Children's Hospital as a Medical Assistant, giving her extra time to support CAF's mission. As a parent, Sue invites other parents and grandparents to identify as a Climate Action family and CAF will give you community, education, fun and support. Together, we can mitigate the effects and progression of this crisis. It's a privilege to be alive on this magic planet, with all the diverse sentient beings, and we humans have the honor to protect it, together.
Heather Price, Board Member
Heather is a parent, climate scientist, climate justice activist, chemistry professor and researcher in Seattle, Washington. She has a PhD in Chemistry and conducted her post-doctoral atmospheric chemistry research with the University of Washington Program on Climate Change. Her current National Science Foundation research project, Climate Justice in Undergraduate STEM Incorporating Civic Engagement (C-JUSTICE), focuses on improving undergraduate STEM education through the integration of climate justice, equity, and civic engagement across the humanities, arts, and STEM curriculum. Heather believes in the CAF mission because it helps families and young people address fossil fueled climate change in ways that that are positive, fun, builds community and helps folks hold the emotions that come with taking climate action all while living during this era of a shifting climate.
Grace Stahre (she/her), Chair
Grace has worn many hats on her journey to making a meaningful contribution to the world. From technology to advocacy film production, her passion has always been rooted in climate and environmental justice. From childhood Grace has had the privilege of organizing small groups, volunteering, and contributing to various organizations aligned with climate justice. Since 2015 she has been an been an active member of Climate Action Families (CAF) with her children, working together in an intergenerational climate justice space that understands the gravity, urgency, and opportunities in the path before us. As a member of the 350 Seattle Leadership Team since 2019, Grace helped align our organizations and sharing the learnings of 350 Seattle with young people. Grace's heart lies in making a positive impact on the climate crisis, supporting the next generation in developing resilience while cultivating a sense of awe and deep connection to the planet and each other.
Rusty West, Board Member
Rusty West is an active member of our Board of Directors. He served previously as Secretary of the Board for 10 years, since our beginning in 2013 until May 2023. Rusty has worked tirelessly with Climate Action Families Seattle (and our previous program, Plant for the Planet Seattle) as Secretary, Monthly Meeting Youth Program Coordinator, Outdoor Program Coordinator, Attendance & Photo record keeper in preparation of our annual January “Court of Honor, Historian, "Registrar" at Academies, “Youth 5-Year Service Award” coordinator, and many other roles since 2013. Rusty is a retired schoolteacher (worked with "at risk youth" in 2nd grade through college levels levels) for many years and has been teaching snow skiing and snowboarding for decades. He works part time currently at Stevens Pass Ski School. Rusty was a Boy Scout in the 1960's and then as an adult was a Scoutmaster for 2 different Boy Scout Troops in the 1970's and 1980's. He was also a "Big Brother" in Big Brothers - Big Sisters of King County from 2003 to 2012. Rusty believes in the Climate Action Families mission because he believes our youth have the moral high ground and the most vested interest in promoting climate recovery in the climate crisis of today.
Community Partners
Itza Carbajal, Community Partner
Itza is a PhD candidate and Teaching Professor at the University of Washington Information School whose work bridges memory, identity, and belonging. Formerly a digital archivist, community organizer, and cultural arts programmer, she brings deep experience in modern history, creative writing, and digital records management from institutions like the University of Texas at Austin, OCLC, and UW. Her research explores how young people’s memories and stories can foster healing, resilience, and imagination in times of crisis. Through her leadership in cultural arts and archival organizations, global ethics conversations, and climate strike teach-ins, she works to preserve the voices of marginalized communities. Itza has developed programming in a CAF workshop that will guide youth through how belonging is shaped by climate change, migration, and identity- and how to carry that sense of connection into their communities.
Dr. McKenna Parnes, Community Partner
Dr. McKenna Parnes is an investigator at the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics and Palliative Care at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and Acting Assistant Professor in the Division of Bioethics & Palliative Care at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Holding a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Suffolk University and an MSEd in Counseling and Mental Health from the University of Pennsylvania, her research examines how climate change impacts child and adolescent mental health—and the ethical responsibility society holds to safeguard younger and future generations.
At Climate Action Families, Dr. Parnes leads a new collaboration with Seattle Children’s and UW, funded by the Translational Community Partnership Grant, to explore the intersection of climate justice, mental health, and youth empowerment. Through a series of youth focus groups, this project reimagines how research can be done with communities rather than on them, centering youth voice, lived experience, and shared values to shape the future of climate justice programming.
Partners
