SEI Fall Speaker Series CEO of TreePeople, Cindy Montañez
TreePeople’s Cindy Montañez Attacks Environmental Injustice
In a spirited and informative presentation, TreePeople’s CEO, Cindy Montañez, along with associates Stephen Caesar and Cesar Hernandez, spoke at East LA College on Monday, November 4. Montañez reviewed the impressive history of TreePeople, which has planted and cared for more than three million trees since it was formed 45 years ago. In doing so, it has renewed depleted landscapes in both urban and forest areas, making LA more climate-resilient as the region faces a hotter, drier future. Montañez and Caesar both focused on environmental justice issues, citing the many ways in which poorer communities are more adversely impacted than wealthy ones by pollution and the lack of green spaces. To partially redress this imbalance, TreePeople works all over Los Angeles, with a lot of recent work in South Los Angeles, the northeast San Fernando Valley, and Southeast LA. They expressed a strong desire to increase TreePeople work in East LA. Montañez has been active in environmental issues since she was young, and as a State Assemblyperson, chaired the Committee on the Environment. She has been CEO for Tree People for over three years, and also serves on the board for UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. Caesar, a former LA Times reporter, works on environmental justice issues with TreePeople, and Hernandez is an eco-educator with them (and student at East). SEI has asked Tree People to speak at all of our colleges in upcoming semesters. 
 Annelisa Ehret Moe from Heal the Bay
Heal the Bay's Annelisa Ehret Moe on Protecting Our Oceans
Our second speaker this semester will be Annelisa Ehret Moe from Heal the Bay. Her talk is entitled “Protecting the Oceans and Fighting Climate Change,” and is set for November 18 at Valley College. The talk will be at 1:30 in the Multipurpose Room of Student Services. It will be a chance for students to learn about the current condition of the oceans, and what we need to do to improve it. Moe received a B.S. from UC Santa Cruz in Earth Science in 2012 and an M.S. in Geology from CSU Northridge. Before joining Heal the Bay last year, she worked with the Regional Water Quality Control Board in both the underground storage tank program and the surface water ambient monitoring program. At Heal the Bay Moe works to keep Los Angeles water clean and safe by using science, education, and community engagement to advocate for comprehensive and science-based water quality regulation and enforcement. 
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