kier blake's (they/them) work to expand access to interdisciplinary, justice-centered climate education in New York’s K–12 schools may have started while teaching students in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens through the nonprofit they co-founded, Start:Empowerment in 2019.

 

But the reality is that they were already afflicted by climate-related, public health issues such as high rates of asthma and lack of access to nutritious food like their students. They had also seen the effects on migration, agricultural health, and disaster preparedness abroad in their livelihood and work across 6 countries.

 

Realizing their own upbringing had been shaped by those same forces, kier’s goal is to prove the critical need for climate change education not only to build awareness on issue at hand but also for the purpose of empowering generations to come in their work to build just, regenerative futures for all.