Staff

Orietta C. Estrada (she/her/ella) is the Roger Arliner Young (RAY) Program Director at ELP.  Orietta has always been passionate about conservation and the environment. Her experiences on the margins of the mainstream, abroad and in the U.S., has informed the way she travels through life—seeking justice and equity via BIPOC liberation, focused within the conservation and environmental movements.

Orietta is an ELP National Fellow (2021); an ANS Environmental Champion (2022); co-founder of Amplify the Future and the Black and Latinx Birders Scholarship/Birders Fund; and is a trustee at Manoment. She holds a B.A. in Literature from New York Institute of Technology, an M.A. in Postcolonial Literary Theory from Stockholms Universitet, and has both undergraduate and graduate coursework in geographic information systems and environmental biology from Hood College.

In her free time she tinkers with the latest in tech-media, reads, takes courses, spends time with her daughter and their three dogs (Poochies, Princesa, y Frijolita), swims, skates, plays the upright bass, and volunteers in her communities.

|ma (she/they), RAY Fellowship Partnerships Manager, is a halfrican and southern(US)-raised, western(US)-born environmental experientialist. Their current skill-set includes roles such as sustainability specialist, waste stream coordinator, program facilitator, and artisanal crafter. Her experiences have given her a well-rounded, socially-minded view of the environmental field -often with a focus on bolstering/involving/increasing the presence and capacity of historically excluded groups. That in mind, Ima seeks to incorporate humanist-naturalist-wholistic environmental awareness, conservation, and sustainability into much of their day-to-day life.

They have a bachelor's in Wildlife Conservation Biology from the Fort Valley State University and a master's in Natural Resources and the Environment with a focus on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Systems from the University of Michigan. She also has topics such as sustainable development, food access, and renewable energy "under her belt."

She enjoys reading and listening to a variety of media, dancing around her apartment and sometimes in public, volunteering with local community orgs, catching up on the latest news with family and friends, and trying to get in at least a small bit of nature daily.