Mariama White-Hammond

• She is the Chief of Environment, Energy, and Open Space for the City of Boston, overseeing policy and programs on energy, climate change, sustainability, historic preservation, and open space.
• Rev. Mariama White-Hammond has worked to bridge the racial divide with a unifying message about the importance of the environment and working together.
• She has helped build coalitions around youth empowerment, advocating for refugees, working towards a fair minimum wage, women’s rights, environmental issues, providing safe space in violent neighborhoods, and spirituality – bridging connections between immigration and climate change or the relationship between energy policy and economic justice.
• She has received numerous awards, including the Barr Fellowship, the Celtics Heroes Among Us, The Roxbury Founders Day Award and the Boston NAACP Image award. She was selected as one of the Grist 50 Fixers for 2019 and Sojourners 11 Women Shaping the Church.

The Climate Crisis as an Opportunity for Transformational Change: Rev. Mariama address the spiritual crisis that climate change poses but also challenges us to see this crisis as an opportunity not only to address cleaning up the environment but working through issues like poverty, racism and gender inequities.

Community Organizing, Young People & Movement Building: There are so many pressing issues facing our world and if we don’t address them the consequences are dire, especially for future generations. Thankfully young people around the world are getting involved in activism and giving us hope that the human species can rise to the challenge.

Reimagining Religion: In the past decade there has been quite a bit of conversation about the declining participation in religious institutions, particularly for younger people. At the same time people are hungry for connection and “spirituality.” Rev. Mariama shares from her own perspective as both a religious leader and an activist about what religious institutions can do to be relevant and meet the needs of this moment.

Additional topics include:

• Social and Racial Justice
• Youth Violence, Poverty
• Criminal Justice Reform
• Ecology & Spirituality
• Climate Change
• Immigration