Fellowship Program

Environmental Leadership Initiative (ELI)

The ELI fellowship uplifts EJ leaders whose work is rooted in relationships with land, culture, & community. We encourage local land stewards, artists, basket weavers, and cultural bearers to apply.

Applications Now Open!

Overview

The Environmental Leadership Initiative is a fellowship that offers leaders advancing Environmental Justice a transformative experience in their leadership journey. This immersive fellowship is designed to empower leaders from diverse backgrounds whose passion and diligence drive positive change in their communities and advance Environmental Justice. Through an intentional balance of learning sessions, collaborative projects, tailored and personalized Liberatory coaching, community building, and networking opportunities, ELI Fellows will deepen their understanding and orientation to Environmental Justice principles, engage in collective movement-building work, and more deeply cultivate the skills necessary to create lasting impact.

ELI is hosted by the Liberty Hill Foundation through the generous support and investment from the Hewlett and Packard Foundations, working in partnership with a community-based Advisory Board who support the shaping of this initiative.

Learning Modules & Collaborative Projects

Mentorship Opportunities & Networking

Personalized Liberatory Coaching

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Vision

The following vision statement was developed by the ELI Advisory Board to guide the development, implementation, and nurturing of the ELI Fellowship and we remain grateful for their past and continuing contributions.

Our vision for the Environmental Leadership Initiative (ELI) is to nourish leaders whose work in Environmental Justice supports and advances power building with disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved and overburdened by environmental harms and economic inequities. ELI aims to amplify their voices and leadership to further drive California’s Environmental Justice values, resources and agenda– centering a more holistic understanding of Environmental Justice that includes agriculture, food systems, outdoor education, California Native Land stewardship and rematriation. ELI recognizes leaders who are building meaningful and powerful communities amidst increasing challenges.

In support of this vision, the ELI Fellowship fosters the growth of environmental justice leaders, their relationships with one another, and advances a deeper level of solidarity, advocacy, and collaboration among them. ELI simultaneously supports leaders in their individual paths of growth and influence while strengthening their organization and networks so that grassroots, California Native Nations, and community-based organizations will have increased power and influence relative to Big Greens and other well-resourced organizations, agencies, and policy making groups.

Fellowship Invitations

The Capacity Building Team at Liberty Hill Foundation has the honor of building the ELI Fellowship the ELI Advisory Board envisioned with the generous support of Hewlett and Packard Foundations. We invite applicants and prospective Fellows to actively co-create the Fellowship experience they wish to have in Community with other fellows and within their existing Movement Ecosystem, the organizations whose missions applicants actively work to strengthen.

Fellowship Invitation: Ecosystem

The ELI Fellowship aims to strengthen the existing relationships between host organizations* and Fellows by resourcing both Leaders and CBOs that are a part of Fellow’s movement ecosystem, rooted in the belief that resourcing leaders and their movement ecosystem will strengthen statewide strategies to advance Environmental Justice in California.

*A host organization is a Community Based Organization (CBO), whether individual 501(c)3 nonprofit organization or fiscally sponsored organization, operating in California and has an existing relationship with the Fellow. Its role is to receive and manage Fellowship funds (grants), provide institutional support, and support fellow in fully participating in the program.

Cultivate an ongoing relationship with their Host Organization
Seek guidance from Liberty Hill and ELI Team
Co-design 2 budgets with their Host Org to achieve a mutually supportive allocation of funds, corresponding to each grant disbursement. Co-developed organizational grants up to $60,000 for community-based organizations with whom fellows are in relationship with.

Fellowship Invitation: Network

The ELI Fellowship aims to co-create and nourish a network of 60 ELI Fellows across the state, so they may expand their network of collaborators in their strategies to advance Environmental Justice.

In addition to co-creating community intra cohorts, the ELI team strives to set a container at the speed of trust so Fellows of cohort 1, 2, and 3 expand their network.
Through intentional community building activities, both in person and virtually, we hope all ELI Fellows of cohort 1, 2, and 3 leave the fellowship with an expanded movement ecosystem that includes Fellows, Advisory Board members, and ELI team.

Fellowship Invitation: Community

The ELI Fellowship aims to cultivate a strong foundation from which each cohort of 20 Fellows may deepen connections to one another and expand their communities of practice.

The ELI team intentionally weaves in AORTA group coaching, discussions, community building activities (virtually and in person) so Fellows may build community among their cohort mates through sharing their insights and learnings.
Through intentional community building activities, both in person and virtually, and cohort-specific AORTA led group coaching, we invite Fellows to meaningfully connect with their cohort mates

Fellowship Invitation: Self

Through deep inquiry and exploration of CA Native, Black, and Indigenous Ways of Being as it relates to Leadership and Environmental Justice, the ELI Fellowship provides an intentional container of rigorous and accessible learning exchanges that encourages within each Fellow the deepening of Self-Lead Leadership.

Grounded in a liberatory leadership approach, the fellowship journey invites reflection, healing, and transformation, affirming leaders who are rooted in community and the Environmental Justice movement.

Engage in bi-weekly virtual learning sessions that include learning from and with a topic expert, deepening knowledge through reading and individual and group projects, and group coaching with AORTA.
Access unlimited 1:1 coaching
In Year 2 of the Fellowship, we invite fellows to set their goals and intentions with Professional Development funding in a way that advances their professional development.

Fellowship Commitments

The ELI Fellowship is a 2-year experience and commitment. We ask that each applicant and prospective Fellow commit to:

Year 1 (March 2026 - February 2027)
- Two-hour virtual sessions over 12 months
- Individual & Collective group projects
- Unlimited access to 1:1 AORTA coaching
- Group coaching sessions
- AORTA led workshops
Year 2 (March 2027 - September 2027)
- Unlimited access to 1:1 AORTA coaching
- Group coaching sessions
- AORTA led workshops
- Dedicated time to professional development activities

Year 1 Preview

At a glance

Virtual Orientation - March 4, 2026
In-Person Spring Convening – Week of May 11, 2026
Bi monthly deep dives begin – March 11, 2026
- Twice a month on Wednesdays from 10:00 - 12:00 pm
In-Person Fall Convening – Week of October 14, 2026
In-Person Spring Convening – Week of May 17, 2027
In-person Fall Convening - Week of October 11, 2027

Please find the detailed Year 1 schedule here.

Meet Our ELI Advisory Board

The ELI Advisory Board plays a critical role in the Environmental Leadership Initiative, helping shape and develop the vision for the program. They are a guiding table of individuals from across the state of California with a variety of expertise, experiences, and backgrounds.

Juan Flores

Juan is a Community Organizer for the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment (CRPE) and is lead organizer for CRPE’s Climate Justice Campaign to stop fracking and other extreme methods of oil extraction. Under his leadership, Juan has led organizing efforts to achieve a comprehensive state law that will provide a 2,500 feet buffer zone from oil extraction in California’s communities.

Angela Mooney D’arcy

Angela is Acjachemen, born in her ancestral homelands whose traditional territories include the area now known as Orange County, and raised in the ancestral homelands of the Osage, Kaw and Wichita Peoples. She has been working with Native Nations, Indigenous Peoples, grassroots and nonprofit organizations, artists, educators, and institutions on environmental and cultural justice issues for over twenty years. She is the Executive Director and Founder of Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples, an Indigenous-led, grassroots environmental justice organization dedicated to building the capacity of Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples to protect sacred lands, waters, and cultures.  She co-founded the United Coalition to Protect Panhe, an alliance of Acjachemen people dedicated to the protection of the sacred site Panhe and served on the Board of the Blas Aguilar Adobe Museum & Acjachemen Cultural Center for nearly a decade.

Sandi Matsumoto

Sandi is The Nature Conservancy’s Director of the California Water Program. She leads a multi-disciplinary team focused on securing a sustainable and resilient water future for California. During her 19 years with TNC, she has worked at the nexus of water, agriculture, and the environment across the state, including by launching BirdReturns and TNC’s efforts to implement the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. She was a member of the first cohort of the Water Solutions Network, serves on the Advisory Council to the Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy Center, is a board member for the Water Education Foundation and serves as an advisor to the emerging Environmental Leadership Initiative.

Amelia Vigil

Amelia is an Urban-Indigenous/Xicano, Two- Spirit, poet, outdoor educator, and identical twin. Their indigenous heritage is Picuris Pueblo from her father and Purepecha from her mother. Mixed Spanish/New Mexican. They have been involved with Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirit (B.A.A.I.T-S) since 2013 and joined the Board of Directors in 2015. Their advocacy and support of Indigenous self-determination are a constant in their life. Recently appointed the Liberated Paths: Youth Access to Nature (YAN) Grant and Program Manager. Amelia has earned degrees from Feather River Community College, Mills College and Institute for American Indian Arts with an MFA in Poetry.

Taylor Thomas

Taylor (they/she) calls Long Beach home, where they were born and raised, and continues to deepen their roots. They have supported organizing quality and affordable education, as well as working with folks experiencing homelessness. Taylor began their journey with EYCEJ as a member shortly, thereafter, eventually becoming an intern before transitioning into a staff role. They aim to combine art, sustainability, compassion, and social justice into a movement of love. Taylor was EYCEJ’s Research and Policy Analyst and now serves as a co-director.

Hop Hopkins

Hop is a Social Movement Strategist and Scholar who has been organizing for over twenty-five years at the intersections of race, class, gender and the environment. As director of organizational transformation at the Sierra Club, Hop is helping the largest, oldest and most influential organization in the environmental sector evolve into a commitment to anti-racism. He is a board trustee for The Midland School and sits on the Los Angeles Food Policy Council’s Leadership Circle and has served on the boards of the Community Coalition for Environmental Justice, Western States Center, and People’s College of Law.