Mark Magaña is the Founding President & CEO of GreenLatinos, a comunidad of Latino/a/e environmental, conservation and climate justice champions who use cultural connections, shared resources, and collective power to advocate for their environmental justice priorities and their environmental liberation. Magaña knows that climate change and environmental degradation left unchecked will only intensify systemic social, health, and economic injustices.
GreenLatinos provides opportunities for their members to convene and utilize cultural connections to establish bonds and build trusted relationships that can serve to break down historical barriers between sectors of the movement and lead to equitable partnerships where unique resources, power, access, privilege, and information can be efficiently shared.
GreenLatinos also serves its members as a capacity building organization, connecting their members to needed resources which it does through its own frontline environmental and climate justice intermediary fund, the “Justicia y Equidad Fund,” and programs like “Colaborativo40” (Colaborativo Cuarenta) created by the desire for Latinos to be better prepared for the Federal Grant opportunities found under Justice40.
In his 30 years in DC, Magaña worked for Latino civil rights organizations, was the first Latino to have served as senior staff at both the White House and in Congressional leadership – as Special Assistant to President Clinton for White House Legislative Affairs and Senior Policy Advisor to the House Democratic Caucus Vice-Chair Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and successfully founded and led the strategic consulting firm Hispanic Strategy Group for over a decade before starting GreenLatinos.
Born in Chicago and raised in Los Angeles, Mark lived in Washington, DC and now lives in Boulder, CO with his partner and children. Mark proudly serves on the boards of the League of Conservation Voters, National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, Green 2.0, and the Children’s Environmental Health Network.
