About
Our Beginning
POCIE was founded in 2020 in response to a need for BIPOC community spaces across wider environmental professionals in Massachusetts.
Our Mission
POCIE fosters a joyous and authentic community for BIPOC environmental professionals of all career levels to dismantle barriers and advance racial equity. Through courage and collective empowerment, we strive towards professional excellence and transformative change in the sector now and for future generations.
Our Vision
Our vision is a racially diverse Massachusetts environmental sector where every professional of color is empowered to lead, thrive, and advocate for themselves and their peers.
Our Values
JOY
Joy is a component of resilience and a birthright for all people. We believe in creating spaces that spark curiosity and recharge the body to support long and fruitful careers for BIPOC professionals.
COMMUNITY
Our community is a source of strength, connection, and guidance. We work across generations and differences to create a coalition capable of transforming the environmental field.
COURAGE
Courage is the ability to stand by one’s values, even when it’s hard. We choose to fight for equity and justice in the environmental sector, regardless of popular opinion or adversity.
EMPOWERMENT
Empowered BIPOC professionals are capable of stewarding a sustainable future for humans and nature. We create inclusive, collaborative spaces where BIPOC folx are centered, heard, supported and given the tools they need to excel in their careers.
AUTHENTICITY
Authenticity is being able to show up as our true and unapologetic selves, both personally and professionally. We celebrate the diversity of experience, thought, ability, background, and heritage that makes our community strong, unique, and excellent.
Our
Team
John Russell
Operations Manager
Professionals of Color in the Environment
In his free time, John can be found somewhere deep in the woods, under the waves, or in the kitchen cooking (and eating) Syrian food with friends and family. He is an avid reader, often found with a dystopian fiction in hand, griping about Octavia Butler’s clairvoyant predictions for the catastrophes of late-stage capitalism. John is passionate about climate justice, food sovereignty, racial equity, community organizing, and their intersectionality.
Danielle C. Perry, PhD
Restoration Ecologist
New England Estuarine Research Society
Danielle is a movie lover, food enthusiast, and loving mother to her 4-legged pup, Pawdrick. She spends her days protecting and restoring coastal environments while playing trudging through muddy salt marsh environments. Her most important job, however, is providing opportunities for young students of color to learn and experience the environment. She loves to spend as much time by the water as she can and travel to as many places her passport will allow.
Rishya Narayanan
Senior Climate Change Communications Strategist
Conservation Law Foundation
Rishya is a bird nerd, video game enthusiast, and houseplant mom. You can often find her buried deep in her couch under a pile of blankets contemplating dismantling white supremacy in the environmental field as her feathered children (Miko and Tofu) shriek gleefully in the background. When she emerges from her couch, she is a strategic multimedia climate communicator and policy advocate.
Nia Keith
Vice President, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice
Mass Audubon
Nia is an educator, witch, revolutionary thinker, and devoted cat mom. By day, Nia is a DEI executive working to dismantle colonialism and supremacy culture in the environmental field. After hours, Nia enjoys travel, gardening, hiking, laughing with friends, liberating her mind, and eating delicious vegan food prepared by others.
Founding Members
Co-Founders Rishya Narayanan, Nia Keith, Danielle Perry, Melanie Gárate, Melissa Ocana, and Saba Ijadi met at a Conservationists of Color meeting, and jointly recognized the need for spaces built by and for BIPOC folks in the environmental field at large. POCIE was born!
Danielle C. Perry
Rishya Narayanan
Nia Keith
Melanie Gárate
Melissa Ocaña
Saba Ijadi
