SPEAKERS
Speakers for Sacramento Climate Strike, 2020

The Speakers for Sacramento Climate Strike are still to be announced! Sign up for our mailing list to get all the updates!

Governor Jay Inslee - Presidential Candidate and Governor of Washington

Governor Jay Inslee has led Washington state since 2013, implementing a bold, progressive vision to tackle climate change, strengthen working families and grow good-paying jobs. Under Jay’s leadership, Washington state has been a beacon of progress. The state has been ranked the best place to work, the #1 economy in the nation and one of the country’s leading states for clean energy.

Fighting climate change has been the driving force behind Jay’s career. As governor, he has enacted policies that make Washington state a national leader in clean energy, clean air and clean water.
Jay created a new Clean Energy Fund, which has invested more than $100 million in developing and deploying innovative energy technologies, and growing clean energy businesses and jobs. He passed the largest and greenest transportation infrastructure investment package in state history. And he started the Clean Energy Institute at the University of Washington, which is pioneering research into next-generation renewable energy technologies like solar and battery storage.

Jay was known as a climate leader in Congress, where he championed investments to grow America’s clean energy industries and introduced groundbreaking climate legislation. In 2007, he co-authored a book on the need for a large-scale effort for “igniting America’s clean energy economy” to create millions of jobs and transition America off fossil fuels.  

Dr. Richard Pan - California State Senator SD 6, Sacramento

Dr. Richard Pan is a pediatrician, former UC Davis educator, and State Senator proudly representing Sacramento, West Sacramento, Elk Grove and unincorporated areas of Sacramento County. Dr. Pan chairs the Senate Committee on Health, the Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee on Health and Human Services and the Committee on Public Employment and Retirement. He also chairs the Senate Select Committees on Children with Special Needs, Asian Pacific Islander Affairs and the 2020 United States Census. He serves on the Senate Committees on Agriculture; Business, Professions and Economic Development; and Education. Dr. Pan is a strong advocate for the scientific truth about vaccines, which are proving their necessity more than ever. Contagious measles outbreaks recently have infected hundreds of people nationwide, centralized among populations of unvaccinated people. Dr. Pan’s work in the senate has helped and is currently to ensure strong community​ immunity in California to protect against dangerous and preventable disease.

Dr. Reem Al Olaby - Assistant Professor of Biology & Biotechnology

Dr. Reem Al Olaby is an assistant professor at California Northstate University. She is originally a pharmacist , and obtained her masters and PhD in biotechnology followed a masters in public health from George Washington University. Throughout her postdoctoral phase she worked on cancer research, and establishing community outreach programs and public health campaigns. Then she started working on the fascinating field of neuroscience by joining UC Davis MIND Institute as an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellow working on genetics of autism , fragile X syndrome and other neurological disorders. She is an active participant in several interfaith initiatives and charity organizations. 

Dr. Al Olaby is a big believer in what Louis Pasteur once said "Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to the humanity and it is the torch which illuminates the world!"

She and her 2 children (Mariam 10 years old and Yousif 7 years old) will talk about how hate and bigotry are considered public health burdens. 

Nailah Pope-Harden – Community Organizer

Nailah Pope-Harden is a community organizer in south Sacramento with a focus on environmental justice and community development. Over that last 10 years she has participated in over 30 social justice campaigns locally, statewide, nationally and internationally. Pope-Harden contends that as we move to reduce greenhouse gas emission, focusing that effort on disadvantaged communities makes the most sense. Many of these communities have suffered from racist, at worst, thoughtless, at best, policies that have stifled growth for residents. Pope-Harden will talk about the need to provide innovative and thoughtful investment that can help the community while helping reduce emissions.

Austin Michael - Youth Climate Strike

Austin Michael was the lead organizer of Sacramento’s recent Youth Climate Strike which saw hundreds of students walk out of class in protest of American inaction in the face of climate change. The strike comes at a time when public concern about climate change is on the rise, driven by extreme weather events and more reports on the increasingly dire consequences of the warming climate, such as the Camp Fire last year. Youth Climate Strike’s platform includes a call for Congress to pass the Green New Deal, which is aimed at speeding the country's transition to carbon-free energy and remaking the economy to spread the wealth more evenly.

Rachelanne Vander Werf - Water Scientist

Rae is a trustee of the local flood control board and a scientist who works on safe drinking water and has studied flood control issues and water resources management. She cares deeply about these and other related issues that we are facing in our community and wants to protect our community and make sure that the American River is usable for all. She is the youngest openly queer person elected in Sacramento County, and a state scientist!  She will talk about floods, drinking water, and water in general in regard to public safety. 

EMCEE

Ilonka Zlatar

Ilonka Zlatar is a scientist and activist with a passion for good government and social justice. She's been an activist since childhood, has a Master's in Ecology and currently works in improving access to funding for projects that reduce pollution and improve quality of life for underserved communities.