Climate of Emotions Speakers

Wawa Gatheru is a Kenyan-American climate activist and founder of Black Girl Environmentalist, one of the largest Black youth-led climate organizations in the U.S. The first person to receive the Rhodes, Truman, and Udall scholarships for environmental scholarship and activism, she serves on national boards including Greenpeace USA and EarthJustice, and was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree.

Join us at NYC Climate Week 2025 to meet Wawa.

Katie Merz is a Brooklyn-born artist whose large-scale public murals blend graffiti, coding, and pictographic language into dynamic black-and-white “urban hieroglyphics.” Her work transforms walls into visual maps of community stories, inviting public participation and creating inclusive, site-specific narratives.

Join us at NYC Climate Week 2025 to meet Katie.

Tamii Sakurai, originally from Tokyo, Japan, is a New York–based tap dancer and Artist in Residence at the American Tap Dance Foundation, with credits including Dorrance Dance, Caleb Teicher & Company, and the Off-Broadway hit STOMP. She has performed internationally across Europe and Asia, and continues to share her love of tap through teaching, choreography, and performance.

Join us at NYC Climate Week 2025 to meet Tamii.

Fatima-Zahrae Tarib, grown up in Morocco and now based in Canada, is a climate justice advocate and certified emotional intelligence practitioner with over six years of experience at the intersection of climate action, inclusive governance, and youth engagement. She has collaborated with organizations like Greenpeace and the Government of Canada, and leads global workshops on climate emotions, intergenerational resilience, and community policy-making.

Join us at NYC Climate Week 2025 to meet Fatima-Zahrae.

Em Freedman (they/them) is a youth wellbeing innovator, facilitator, and artist from the USA, whose early experiences growing up across four continents shaped their lifelong commitment to compassion, creativity, and justice. A former child climate activist and author of Climate of Emotions, Em now works as a Program Specialist with the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Network, teaches mindfulness at Smith College, and continues to explore sustainability, love, and freedom through Buddhist study, retreat, and embodied arts.

Join us at NYC Climate Week 2025 to meet Em.

Past Speakers