Our Staff

Director of Civic & Community Engagement

  • Kristal Suggs, she/her, is a former school teacher, turned elected official, turned community organizer based in Eastern North Carolina. In 2016 she left the classroom to fully devote her time and energy into building power with her community to address issues around climate resilience, public safety, food insecurity, and youth development by helping to build Kinston Teens—a nonprofit youth-led organization that has now grown into a global model of young people leading the efforts of community change.

    Now serving NC Climate Justice Collective as the Director of Civic & Community Engagement, she organizes a 365 model of civic education in a multi-racial, intergenerational grassroots movement ecosystem working to address the root causes of climate change. She works to build the capacity of our movement partners and resiliency organizing hubs to utilize base-building, electoral engagement, and issue campaigns to enact systemic change.

    Aside from work, she is the proud mom of two young adults, MeMa to a goddaughter and a favorite person to a grandpup!

Co-Founder and Co-Director

  • Jodi Lasseter (she/her) is an educator, facilitator, community catalyst, and cultural worker. Jodi has been engaged at all levels of the climate justice movement to build power and alignment. Through previous positions as Director of Organizational Development for the international Amazon Alliance, Program Director for the National Engage Network, and Director of Climate Justice for the state PowerUp NC program, she has worked closely with hundreds of grassroots leaders in the US. USA and abroad. Through her own consulting practice, Turn the Tide, Jodi offers workshops in popular education, meeting design and facilitation, strategic organizational development, ecofeminist trainings, and spiritual activism circles.

    She was a co-founder of the Healing Our Movement Ecosystem (HOME) and is a facilitator of the Work that Reconnects. She is the Energy Justice NC activist for Friends of the Earth and serves on the steering committees of the Climate and Jobs Roundtable coalition and Energy Justice NC. She also serves as Co-Chair of the Alliance for Climate Justice's Just Recovery Task Force.

    Jodi is originally from Asheville, and has a BA in Women's Studies and Anthropology from UNC-Chapel Hill. She was a Social Change Fellow at Clark University, where she earned her MA in International Development, Community and Environment. She currently lives in Durham, where he delights in singing in community, walking through the woods, playing drums with the Just Jammers, and exploring the best local swimming holes..

Co-Founder and Co-Director

  • Connie Leeper, she/her, is a movement elder in the NC social, environmental and climate justice eco-system. She is one of the co-founders of the NC Climate Justice Collective, where she proudly serves as a Co-Director.

    In addition to being a thought leader focused on the justice lens for climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience, her primary roles include strategic planning, grassroots training, resource development and cultural work.

    Connie also is a liaison to CJC’s regional and national partnerships and is noted for her movement history, collaboration principles, and skillsets. As a leader who evolved from being organized as an organizational volunteer to becoming an organizer in 1990, she is very passionate about the process of creating a pathway for grassroots, everyday people to move from self-interest to self-actualization.She was a co-founder of the Healing Our Movement Ecosystem (HOME) and is a facilitator of the Work that Reconnects. She is the Energy Justice NC activist for Friends of the Earth and serves on the steering committees of the Climate and Jobs Roundtable coalition and Energy Justice NC. She also serves as Co-Chair of the Alliance for Climate Justice's Just Recovery Task Force.

Cultural Organizing Director

  • Dasan Ahanu (he/him) fosters community engagement, empowerment, and social change through arts and culture. Through this approach, he will lead initiatives that amplify voices, elevate critical perspectives, and promote social and climate justice, leveraging the power of culture to build connections, raise awareness, deepen engagement, and drive positive change within communities.

    Dasan is an award-winning poet, playwright, cultural organizer, performing artist, and scholar. Dasan has been a visiting lecturer at UNC-Chapel Hill, an alumnus of Harvard University's Nasir Jones Fellowship, and North Carolina's 2023 Piedmont Laureate for poetry.

    A respected recording artist, Dasan has collaborated with many Jazz, Soul, and Hip-Hop artists in North Carolina. He has published extensively, performed nationwide, and authored six poetry collections.

    Dasan believes in the power of art as a tool for change and is committed to integrating the arts into movement-building and organizing strategies. Dasan is a respected builder who works with organizations and institutions to develop effective arts strategies that enhance their work in the community. He loves watching comedies and sitcoms, enjoys good food, and proudly represents the South.

Our Board

  • Donna Chavis (she/her) has been a leader in the national environmental justice movement since its inception in eastern North Carolina in the 1980s. As a co-founder of the Robeson County Community Action Center in 1980, Donna participated in multiple environmental justice campaigns in nuclear and toxic waste throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

    As a Commissioner of the Racial Justice Commission of the United Church of Christ, she played an important role in the Commission's environmental justice work. She was the founding director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation's national racial and economic justice program, led the office of cultural programming for the North Carolina Indian Cultural Center, and served as the Executive Director of NCGives.

    In her current role as a senior fossil fuel activist for Friends of the Earth, Donna leads the campaign to stop construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the only pipeline on President Trump's list of 50 infrastructure and national security priorities.

    Born in the town of Lumbee, she resides in her hometown of Pembroke, North Carolina, with her spouse, Mac Legerton. They are the parents of four and grandparents of four children. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke with a BA in Mathematics and Psychology.

  • Alecia Gaines (she/her) has held leadership positions with the Sierra Club of North Carolina; first as president of a local group, the first African American woman in their 30-plus year history, then as a member of the Equity, Justice and Inclusion committee, as well as the NC Sierra Club Steering Committee.

    She is a general member of the Greensboro Sustainability Council, a founding member of the Solar Power Now Coalition, and a volunteer coordinator for the 2017 Greensboro Women's March. She is a member of the Haw River Assembly board.

    She has a BA in Political Science from Winston Salem State University and an MA in Adult Education from North Carolina A&T State University.

    Her passion for the environment grew as she advocated for clean waterways and the protection of old growth forests in North Carolina for over 25 years.  She believes everyone has a right to clean air and water,  food free from harsh chemicals, and the economic mobility to thrive. 

    Alecia has served on the Leadership Team for CJC since 2016, and whenever the opportunity arises, she makes space for throwing pottery, walking on local trails, and saving her nickels and dimes for a 30-day cruise around the world.

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  • Mark Ortiz (he/him) is an Assistant Professor of Geography at Penn State University. He completed his PhD in Geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2022. His research interests include youth activism, social movements, environmental and climate justice, community-engaged research, participatory methods and storytelling, and his primary regional focus is the U.S. Southeast.

    He has been a member of the NCCJC Leadership Team since 2016 and is currently in the beginning stages of a book project chronicling the work of the NC Climate Justice Collective.

    In his spare time, Mark is a musician and enjoys playing banjo, guitar, and mandolin. 

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  • Ayo Wilson (he/him) is a Co-Director at West End Revitalization Association, where he leads initiatives to advance clean energy, community involvement and leadership, and community science to achieve climate and environmental justice. He has over 10 years experience in policy and program formulation, implementation and evaluation, community relations and outreach, and nonprofit leadership with a focus on justice and equity.

    Ayo earned his Master’s in Public Administration from NC Central University, cum laude, and has led and collaborated on projects in the U.S. and Liberia. He believes the road to justice must be focused on truth and that real solutions live with the first and worst impacted communities.

    Outside of work, he enjoys family time, nature adventures, and riding his ebike.

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  • Omari Wilson (he/him) is the Managing Attorney of O. M. Wilson, PLLC. With over eighteen years of experience, he is a North Carolina attorney who focuses on estate planning and heirs' property. His professional passion is rooted in his personal history, having been raised in Mebane's historic West End. His family’s nonprofit, the West End Revitalization Association (WERA), worked to bring essential services like water and paved roads to the community.

    Deeply inspired by this work, he earned his law degree from Capital University and a psychology degree from Appalachian State.

    Omari's approach is a relational one, committed to helping individuals and communities protect and preserve what they have built for future generations.

    Omari enjoys family time, physical fitness, spending time outdoors, and riding his ebike. He serves on several boards, including The Black Farmers' Market and Audubon NC.