Rural America is often misunderstood as a conservative monolith. This misconception keeps progresive movements from investing in rural communities — but these communities are critical if we want to advance environmental justice. In this panel, Lydia Avila, a program officer at the Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, speaks with three grassroots, rural organizers who are also grantee partners with the fund: Johana Bencomo with New Mexico Comunidades en Acción y de Fé (NM CAFe), Janie Hill-Scott with Georgia WAND, and Veronica Coptis with Center for Coalfield Justice. All of the panelists are grantees of the Equity Fund, which invests in Black and women-led organizing around climate change in eight, largely rural states: Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Virginia, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina.
The panelists discuss the challenges and fears that rural communities face, particularly around a just transition away from a fossil-fuel based economy. They share how deep listening and community conversations have helped them build trust around climate equity in their communities — paving the way for lasting policy changes.
Lydia D. Avila is a program officer for the Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund. She is from a working-class suburb of Los Angeles County, first generation Mexican-American, and an organizer first and foremost. Lydia has spent her career immersed in the US climate movement and most recently served as...
Janie Scott is a lifelong resident of Waynesboro, Burke County Georgia. She received a Bachelor’s of Business Administration with an emphasis on Marketing from Augusta State University in Augusta, Georgia. She was employed in the medical field for many years early in her career and went on to become an...
Johana Bencomo is the Executive Director of NM Comunidades en Acción y de Fe (CAFe), the largest faith-based grassroots, power building movement in Southern NM. She has been with NM CAFe for 6 years, having powerfully organized around immigrant and border rights, economic dignity, and rural infrastructure. Johana earned her...
Veronica Coptis is the executive director of the Center for Coalfield Justice and has been organizing since 2009. She grew up in southwestern Pennsylvania adjacent to the largest underground coal mine in the country and currently lives surrounded by fracking operations. Veronica has organized in rural PA for 15 years...
