Energy Justice and How We Got Here

Presenter: Natalie Espinoza
Natalie Espinoza leads community outreach and engagement initiatives for The Energy Coalition (TEC) and facilitates their Environmental Justice Advisory Committee. With over a decade of experience in energy-efficiency program education and engagement, Natalie is dedicated to advancing environmental justice and sustainability in underserved communities.
Natalie has recently focused on the EPIC Grant-funded Bassett Avocado Heights Advanced Energy Community project, serving an environmental justice community in the San Gabriel Valley of California. This project aims to create a resilient, sustainable energy future through innovative solutions and community-driven planning.
In addition, Natalie implements the Los Angeles County-administered Healthy Stores Refrigeration Program. This program addresses food deserts in Los Angeles County by providing free energy-efficient refrigerators with minimally processed, California-grown foods. This initiative helps small business owners save energy while empowering them to offer healthy food options.
Part of Natalie’s role at TEC is leading community engagement with Community-Based Organizations, fostering partnerships that drive impactful, localized solutions. As the daughter of Mexican immigrants, Natalie is passionate about giving back to the immigrant and underserved communities that helped raise her. Her commitment to environmental justice is intertwined with her dedication to supporting and uplifting these communities, ensuring equitable access to sustainable resources and opportunities.
Natalie holds a degree in Environmental Science and Policy from California State University, Long Beach, with minors in Geography and Anthropology. These studies shaped her understanding of how people move, think, and prosper. She applies this knowledge to her work, aiming to highlight the interconnectedness of people and their environments.
Presenter: Mayra Sánchez Barba
Mayra Sánchez Barba completed her PhD in Geography with a DE in Feminist Theory and Research Methods. Her scholarship has focused on the politics of knowledge in the making of toxic social and environmental disparities, and the ethics of everyday care work. This work draws from feminist theory, critical race theory, geographies of environmental justice, critical disability studies, and environmental humanities. Furthermore, her work employed principles of feminist and critical pedagogy and public scholarship. More recently, she is interested in learning how we collectively cope with loss, and is inspired by indigenous knowledge and ecological science that center our interconnectedness to seek ways of living that nourish our ecologies and cultivate more liveable worlds.
In her new role at the Feminist Research Institute, Mayra is committed to developing more just and transformative research and policy. To do this, she aims to work collaboratively with researchers and community members to center marginalized standpoints and unsettle dominant stories.