Welcome to the Water Learning Series: Los Angeles session eight.
We welcome Candice Dickens-Russell, President and CEO of Friends of the LA River and Kayleigh Wade, Senior Manager of Outreach – Heal the Bay.
Candice Dickens-Russell
Candice is the President & CEO of Friends of the LA River and a passionate leader in sustainability, environmental literacy, and environmental justice. With nearly 20 years of experience in the non-profit environmental sector, Candice has worked with schools, school districts, government agencies, utilities, and municipalities to develop and deliver high quality sustainability, environmental education, and community engagement projects. An equity thought leader with a passion for environmental justice, Candice has used her background in social justice to lead environmental organizations in equity strategic planning and organizational development. She is a crusader for sustainability, equity, and justice in all she does.
Kayleigh Wade
Kayleigh (she/they) is Heal the Bay’s Senior Manager of Outreach and is proudly from Lynwood, CA. She earned her BA in Chicana/o Studies and LGBTQ Studies from UCLA in 2016. With 10 years of organizing experience, her commitment to social justice has played out in a variety of spaces – from organizing with fellow students at Santa Monica College to prevent the privatization of general education courses, to organizing closely with youth of color on environmental justice issues in Southeast LA, to supporting girl-identified youth at the coolest rock camp of all time, Chicas Rockeras de Sur Este Los Angeles. She is a volunteer with Latino Outdoors and partakes in water recreation with Queer Surf. In their spare time, she likes going to restaurants, reflecting on water justice’s connection to her environmental work, cooking for loved ones, taking up new skills like fly fishing, going on walks around the LA River, and hanging out with her pet babies Penny and Oats.
The Water Learning Series: Los Angeles is a year long virtual event that will be recorded and published at a later date at TALKING WATER.
In collaboration with Accelerate Resilience L.A.