This is part of a series of interview/conversations with people involved in collaborative and democratic approaches to moving money in service to a Just Transition.
These sessions are part of a discovery process that will inform the design of an "action-learning lab" in 2021 to support collaborative funding practices for networks and organizations. Learn more about this inquiry on the Now What?! Invitations blog here.
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(Gender pronouns: He/Him)
Mateo is one of the co-founders of the Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project. He was born and grew up in La Paz, Bolivia. Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, he has worked in the labor, environmental justice and international solidarity movements. Mateo is the son of Barbara, and fortunate father of Maya and Nilo. He is also a member of the Latin rock band Los Nadies. Mateo is national co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance’s Steering Committee.
Contact Mateo: mateoATmovementgeneration.org
(Gender pronouns: She/Her or They/Them)
Michelle is on the Movement Generation staff collective and has been on the MG planning committee since 2008. Her core roles are Just Transition training & strategy, MG strategy & organizational development, Climate Workers, and funder engagement.
Michelle has worked for the last 25 years building movement vehicles for frontline communities to move a shared vision and strategy. Prior to her work at MG, she co-led the Center for Food and Justice, National Farm to School Initiative, Rooted in Community, and School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL). In her role as an MG collective member, Michelle was a founding co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance and the Our Power Campaign which is uniting frontline communities around a just transition. Michelle was recently named an Ashoka Fellow (2017-2020).
Prior to her work with MG, Michelle helped cultivate the farm-to-school movement and was instrumental in setting up some of the first farm-to-school programs in the country in the 1990s. As Director of the Center for Food and Justice in Los Angeles, she led the launch of the National Farm to School Initiative which became a thriving national network and set of farm-to-institution campaigns. Michelle was awarded a Kellogg Food and Policy Fellowship in 2002 for her work advancing food justice.
Born and raised in Southern California, Michelle has nurtured a growing family in the SF Bay Area over the last 15 years. As a mama, she can often be found organizing with other families to meet basic needs for childcare, meals, and justice through mutual aid coops. She is also in the teacher training program of generative somatics as she actively works to heal from individual and collective trauma as part of collective social change.
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These interviews are hosted by the Thriving Resilient Communities Collaboratory (TRCC) in partnership with the Regenerosity Network and the Now What?! global gathering and gift economy.