Get to know CEC members Alej Martinez & Mata Townsend
Name | Alej Martinez |
What is your work and how did you end up focusing on the work you do? | My work is dedicated to building community resilience through the critical lenses of social equity and authentic community engagement. I was drawn to this field, and remain passionate about it, because I’ve consistently observed and been inspired by the resilience present in my own communities. |
What’s your biggest motivation to do climate work (or for engaging in climate action)? | Climate work impacts people disproportionately; it’s important to me to uplift and support these frontline communities. |
If you could accomplish one big goal related to climate action, what would it be? | Developing an equitable modal transportation network that ensures reliable and safe services and emergency response for vulnerable communities during extreme weather events. |
Who inspires you the most? | People who honor the land and its gifts. |
What’s one book that helped inform your perspective on climate action? | Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States: Restoring Cultural Knowledge, Protecting Environments, and Regaining Health |
What words of wisdom or motivation can you share with those who want to engage in climate action? | Think of this quote and what kind of world we want our people to have after we are gone: “we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children” |
What’s one thing you do to recharge from your work? | I like to spend time in the river or in my garden tending to my flowers. |
Name | Mata Townsend |
What is your work and how did you end up focusing on the work you do? | Currently, I’m a “reluctant” retiree—busier and more involved now than I ever was while employed. My career with the National Weather Service Central Region Headquarters, which followed a humorous misstep in the FAA’s Air Traffic Control Training Program (I “crashed” too many airplanes), sparked a lifelong interest in the environment. More recently, I worked with an environmental justice-focused nonprofit, immersing myself in the urgent mission of saving a dying planet. I enjoy staying busy and keeping abreast of the rapid changes impacting our environment. |
What’s your biggest motivation to do climate work (or for engaging in climate action)? | My children, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren—and, by extension, everyone’s children. One pet peeve – calling children ‘kids’ rather reserving that for baby goats. Words are extremely powerful. They are our children. Enough said. |
If you could accomplish one big goal related to climate action, what would it be? | I’d want the leaders of our governments, businesses, and—frankly—everyone, to recognize and act on the reality that we don’t have another planet to escape to. And even if we did, most of us wouldn’t be able to get there. |
Who inspires you the most? | My younger sister. At just six years old, she survived a debilitating illness, multiple life-threatening events, and surgeries that left her in body casts. After losing her husband in a tragic truck accident, she went on to earn her degree from UMKC Columbia (BA), write and self-publish several books of poetry, produce two music albums, lead Kansas City’s Million Women March delegation, run for president on a Green Party ticket, and travel extensively despite mobility challenges—and there’s more |
What’s one book that helped inform your perspective on climate action? | H.E.A.T. Full Report (Health Equity Action Transformation) by David Norris and Mikyung Baek, produced by The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity at Ohio State University. It’s not a book per se, however it’s contents hit close to home. In fact, it was entirely about the county I’ve lived in for the past 13 years, Wyandotte County. It tied local health outcomes to the issues of lack of good environmental stewardship. |
What words of wisdom or motivation can you share with those who want to engage in climate action? | There is no greater reward than knowing you’re helping to sustain the very reason we’re still here—a healthy Earth. |
What’s one thing you do to recharge from your work? | Walk more! |