The Latest

The Hub's Professional Learning Community (PLC) Is On!

Fall 2025

The second annual Professional Learning Community (PLC) brings together students, faculty, and climate justice activists representing various CUNY campuses, NYC-EJA member organizations, and other institutions. Participants engage in a critical analysis of the socio-environmental factors influencing climate justice in the NYC's working-class communities of color that the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA) serves.

NYC Climate Justice Hub 2025-2026 Fellowship & Internship Programs Kick Off: Finding a Community!

November 3, 2025

The NYC Climate Justice Hub’s Fellowship & Internship program kicked off the second cohort this past month with an intensive three-day Academy from October 7th-9th. The event brought together nine Fellows and five Interns, along with the Hub and New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA)‘s staff, to engage in meaningful conversations around climate justice issues over meals.

About Us

Strengthening just transition efforts led by frontline communities of color across NYC.

The NYC Climate Justice Hub flips the script on traditional university-community partnerships. Grassroot leaders in the NYC-Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA) set the research and advocacy agenda while CUNY supplies the capacity and resources of the largest public-urban university in the US. For the past two years, we have recruited, trained, and supported a network of 100+ CUNY and community stakeholders to advance frontline climate solutions for improved air quality, transportation justice, renewable energy transitions, and much more.

According to 2024 data from the CUNY Office of Applied Research, Evaluation, and Data Analytics (OAREDA), more than 30,000 CUNY students (17% of the total CUNY student population) live in zip codes served by the six NYC-EJA member organizations participating in the Hub. These are among NYC’s most diverse, historically underserved communities, where 87% of CUNY students residing there self-identify as people of color and 74% qualify as “low-income.” Through the NYC Climate Justice Hub partnership, CUNY students from these neighborhoods are immersed in climate justice research, studies, and internships preparing them to become the drivers of social and environmental justice in their very own communities.

In this way, the Hub generates a unique, self-sustaining model where the benefactors of local climate justice efforts in NYC are also its beneficiaries.

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The first-ever CUNY-wide, student-centered, community-led Climate Justice Summit on February 25, 2025 brought together more than 400 CUNY students, faculty, NYC-EJA member organization constituents, and climate justice activists throughout NYC. The event was geared toward CUNY students who wanted to learn more about the NYC Climate Justice Hub and how to be involved in supporting a climate justice agenda in New York City and State that aligns with New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA) and their coalitional partners fighting on the frontlines to build a more just city. Learn more about the Summit here.

Participating NYC-EJA member organizations

Active CUNY campuses

CUNY faculty, staff, and student researchers assisting NYC-EJA member organizations on environmental/climate justice projects that improve community health, sustainability, and overall well-being

CUNY classes engaging in collaborative projects and capstones NYC-EJA member organizations to expand and propagate climate justice knowledge within the CUNY, the broader NYC community, and beyond

Climate Justice Fellows trained to promote EJ/CJ on their campuses and in their communities across NYC-EJA campaigns

Interns working directly with NYC-EJA member organizations on their climate and social justice research and advocacy efforts

How the NYC Climate Justice Hub Works

Communities

Six grassroots NYC-EJA member organizations set climate justice-oriented campaigns and priorities based on the needs of their communities.

Campuses

A university network of 25 colleges contribute resources to help fulfill the NYC-EJA member organizations’ campaigns and priorities

NYC Climate Justice Hub

Through this collaboration, three core programs developed by the Hub serve NYC-EJA member organizations and NYC’s environmental justice communities.

NYC-EJA Member Organizations

El Puente Nos Quedamos

GOLES UPROSE The Point

The Brotherhood Sister Sol

CUNY

Hub Programs

Research Teams Classes & Curriculum Collaborations Climate Justice Fellowship & Academy Program

Outputs from the Hub’s programs are invested directly into supporting NYC-EJA member organizations and their agendas.

The NYC Climate Justice Hub uses the Jemez Principles and Principles of Environmental Justice to center NYC community members' needs to transform CUNY and other institutions in NYC In how they teach, learn, and conduct research about climate issues. An extremely diverse and NYC-centered institution, CUNY is positioned to be a partner to NYC-EJA in this work, especially given the fact that many students and faculty at CUNY live and work in the neighborhoods that NYC EJA member organizations serve.

Resources

The goal of the NYC Climate Justice Hub is not just to accomplish work that furthers a climate justice agenda for NYC, but to also amplify that work to a larger audience—including the work that has already been done by community partners. To this end, the Hub offers a diverse and continually expanding body of resources intended to help academics, students, researchers, community members, and climate justice advocates alike to think critically about the climate justice challenges and their solutions.

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Research Teams

The objective of the Research Teams initiative is to provide technical assistance to community organizations and create a culture of good research practices for participating CUNY faculty and graduate students that models a community-driven research partnership and enables the production and dissemination of research and public knowledge products identified as important to NYC-EJA member groups.

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The Green Light District team at El Puente reviews traffic data in South Williamsburg as part of the mobility study they are working on in collaboration with their Research Team, led by Dr. Sherry Ryan (Baruch College) and Professor Dwayne Baker (Queens College).

Classes & Curriculum Collaborations

The Classes & Curriculum initiative enables CUNY faculty at any level (part-time, full-time, graduate, undergraduate, etc.) who are teaching courses with an environmental or climate justice focus—or are aiming to develop such curricula— to meet with each other, share syllabi, and connect to climate justice content through NYC-EJA member organizations and their campaigns. Professors and their classes provide additional technical expertise, research, and campaign capacity to member organizations to further support their local priorities.

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Hub Advocate Nando Rodriguez gives an interactive tour of the Brotherhood Sister Sol and demonstrates public speaking skills to Professor Jill Strauss' Speech 102 Class from Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC).

Climate Justice Fellowship & Academy Program

This initiative provides an emerging generation of climate justice leaders from across CUNY with the skills, networks, and opportunities they need to advance climate solutions through study, service-learning, professional development, research and advocacy projects, and campaign and policy development

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2024-2025 Intern Angela Zhou presents the findings and recommendations of her vegetation and tree cover research in Sunset Park to staff at UPROSE.

Get Involved

Thank you for your interest in the NYC Climate Justice Hub!

To learn more about the Hub or to get involved, please email us at [email protected] or fill out our general interest form.

General Interest Form

Opportunities

There are many different ways to get involved with the NYC Climate Justice Hub! Take a look at the following opportunities to learn more about our work and contribute to our mission.

If you are a CUNY faculty member

We would be delighted to learn more about your research areas and courses that you are teaching! You may be a great match for one of our Research Teams or our Classes & Curriculum initiative. Or, you may be interested in having a Hub staff member speak to your class about our work. You may also be interested in checking out the Community Library in the Resources section for information that you can integrate into your own research or courses. Please reach out to Jazmyn Blackburn (Hub Coordinator) to find out more about how you can use these resources or to get involved with the Hub or fill out the general interest form to see if there are other ways you might be able to plug in!

If you are a CUNY student

You are an integral part of the next generation of climate justice advocates and there are many opportunities to grow your knowledge and apply your skills through the Hub! You can apply to join the Climate Justice Fellowship or the Hub team through the general interest form. If you have interest in either of these opportunities—or getting connected in general—reach out to Jazmyn Blackburn (Hub Coordinator for CUNY), Forrest Sparks (Project Manager), or Maithreyi Rajeshkumar (Climate Justice Fellowship & Academy Program Lead).

If you are a faculty member or student at another university

We would love to hear from you about what brought you to this website and what your institution is doing to build bridges between communities and universities towards a more equitable and environmentally sustainable future! If you are interested in learning more about the Hub, sharing your own experience with us, or discussing opportunities to collaborate, please reach out to our team at [email protected] or fill out the general interest form, and we will direct you to the right folks to assist with your inquiry.

If you are a member of an NYC community organization

You can learn more about community organizations like yours that are making strides to achieve climate and environmental justice in NYC by visiting NYC-EJA’s website. You can also reach out to Alan Minor (Hub Coordinator, NYC-EJA) to learn more about the campaigns that members of NYC-EJA are working on and how to support and collaborate.

Read Our Latest Newsletter

Check out our newsletters! Click the image on the left to read our latest newsletter. Our newsletters capture exciting updates from our three core initiatives (Research Teams, Classes & Curriculum, and the Fellowship & Internship), news and events from the six NYC-EJA member organizations (UPROSE, El Puente, Brotherhood Sister Sol, GOLES, The Point CDC, We Stay/Nos Quedamos), and features a highlight of a Hub staff member or participant.