Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru
Food Insecurity as an Environmental Justice Issue and How We Can Help
While many interpret food insecurity and environmental justice as different issues, for Wanjiku "Wawa" Gatheru, these problems are one and the same. Wawa recognizes food as an environmental resource intertwined with our health, practices, and cultures. Our interactions with the environment directly impact the quality and accessibility of culturally rich and nutritious foods, which leaves the most vulnerable populations disproportionally burdened by the consequences. When she attended college at The University of Connecticut, that concern continued. She co-founded the UConn Access to Food Effort (UCAFE), creating and distributing the first campus-wide food insecurity survey at any public college in the state. As part of her grant, she also created pop-up food closets across campus that offered free, healthy groceries. In this talk, Gatheru shares how and why food insecurity continues to be a problem—more than 42 million Americans, including 13 million children, experienced food insecurity in 2021. She will discuss solutions to reduce food insecurity, increase access, and how we can all easily help.
For Wawa, environmental justice warrior, Rhodes scholar and founder of Black Girl Environmentalist, caring about the environment started early. While farming with her mom and grandmother as a child, the conversations would often turn to saving the earth. The first-generation American of Kenyan descent became even more invested when taking an environmental science class in high school when she learned that social justice and climate issues were deeply intertwined. Everything suddenly became personal. “It was in this call I learned that the environment had everything to do with me,” she says. Her passion soon turned into activism.
Today, Wawa is a climate justice storyteller motivated to uplift the voices of those most adversely impacted by the climate crisis. She has become a prominent voice of her generation, using the power of social media to share how communities of color and women have been adversely affected by climate change and the racist roots of the environmental movement.
Harnessing her academic background as a Rhodes scholar and her work as a youth climate activist, Wawa’s life goal is to help create a climate movement made in the image of all of us. Online, Wawa combats climate nihilism and highlights the legacies of those traditionally sidelined from mainstream environmentalism to her audience of over 80,000-plus across platforms. In-person, Wawa is the founder and executive director of Black Girl Environmentalist, a Public Voices Fellow on the Climate Crisis at Yale University and a recent Revolutionary Power Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy, where she worked under the first-ever Deputy for Energy Justice to integrate energy justice in the federal landscape.
Passionate about bringing climate conversations into untraditional spaces, Wawa works collaboratively alongside other creatives, musicians and culture shapers to bring climate justice to the mainstream. In January 2023, Billie Eilish personally invited Wawa to join her on the first-ever digital cover of Vogue, alongside seven other climate activists.
Wawa sits on boards and advisory councils for the Environmental Media Association, Earthjustice, Climate Power, the National Parks Conservation Association, Good Energy and Sound Future.
Wawa has been recognized as a Young Futurist by The Root, a Grist 50 FIXER, a Glamour College Woman of the Year and a Victoria’s Secret PINK Purpose Project Winner. She was also named a Climate Creator to Watch by Pique Action and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and has spoken about her work across the country.
Rob Lawless
Discover the Untapped Value of Human Connection
In this captivating keynote, Rob Lawless shares his extraordinary journey of spending one hour, one-on-one, with 10,000 diverse individuals. Through Rob's gripping anecdotes, you'll discover the remarkable connections he's forged with newfound friends in far-flung corners of the world, illustrating the unexpected ways in which human relationships can transcend boundaries.
Rob's encounters encompass a profound range of experiences, from meeting a survivor of a mass shooting to embarking on a flight piloted by the plane's builder. These encounters have bestowed invaluable insights on him, shedding light on the power of human connection and empathy.
Moreover, the keynote introduces the FRIEND framework (Family & Relationships, Industry, Entertainment, Needs & Dreams) to facilitate meaningful one-on-one interactions among participants. Rob's stories and photos of his adventures underscore the significance of deliberate connections, leaving attendees inspired and equipped to foster a workplace environment where everyone feels genuinely seen, heard, and valued.
Rob, a 32-year-old originally hailing from Norristown, Pennsylvania, has a profound love for getting to know new people. In May 2013, he graduated with the highest honors from Penn State University, achieving a finance degree and pursuing minors in accounting and entrepreneurship. Following his graduation, Rob commenced his professional journey as a business analyst in strategy & operations at Deloitte Consulting. Although it was his dream job at that time, he made a typical millennial move after about a year and a half, accepting a significant pay cut and leaving behind the world of PowerPoint presentations and spreadsheets to join RJMetrics, a laid-back, $24 million venture-funded company.
At RJMetrics, Rob assumed the role of a sales representative, which entailed cold emailing people daily and requesting 30-minute phone calls to discuss their product offerings. He initiated a unique project to meet with people for an hour, for absolutely no reason, and held his inaugural meeting on November 11, 2015. Rejections became less frequent, responses turned overwhelmingly positive and encouraging, and Rob encountered remarkable individuals with extraordinary backgrounds, all of whom considered themselves quite ordinary.
Then, on Monday, June 20, 2016, RJMetrics was acquired by a larger company, no longer necessitating Rob's position. Seizing the opportunity, he committed full-time to his pursuit of meeting 10,000 different people for an hour each.
Throughout this remarkable journey, Rob Lawless has connected with over 5,400 individuals from more than 90 countries worldwide. He embarked on six nationwide journeys and garnered attention from various prominent media outlets, including features on Ryan Seacrest's nationally syndicated radio show "On Air with Ryan Seacrest," the Canadian national morning show "Your Morning," and the TODAY Show with Hoda and Jenna. Rob even made a memorable appearance on the Kelly Clarkson Show alongside Jane Lynch and Jo Koy, with an audience comprising approximately 100 friends from his project.
Passionate about adventure and potential, Rob has found that his project embodies both aspects over the past seven years. He remains deeply satisfied with the progress thus far and eagerly anticipates dedicating his efforts to see where the future leads.