My Story

Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru is a climate storyteller passionate about making the climate movement relevant and accessible to everyone. Harnessing her background as a Rhodes Scholar and youth climate activist, Wawa works to bring climate justice to the mainstream. Her goal is to be an effective communicator that helps inspire a generation of “unlikely” environmentalists.

Early Beginnings

Wawa Gatheru grew up in rural Connecticut on Mashantucket Pequot land. As the daughter of Agĩkũyũ Kenyan immigrants, Wawa grew up with a deep connection to the land. Her earliest memories were spent gardening with her mom and grandmother, where she was taught the ethic of reciprocity and care for the planet. However, it was not until she reached high school that she considered herself an “environmentalist”. Up until then,mainstream depictions of environmentalism felt unrelated and disconnected from the issues she cared most about.

At 15, Wawa stumbled into an environmental science class that introduced the environment as a justice issue. She began to recognize that to solve the climate crisis, everyone must be involved. Frustrated by the lack of intersectionality in climate narratives, she decided to harness her passion for climate science and activism towards making the climate movement more relevant and accessible.

After spending a year in Buriram, Thailand as a Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Scholar of the United States Department of State, Wawa returned to study environmental science and policy at the University of Connecticut. As a budding academic, her goal was to contribute to intersectional environmental scholarship. Understanding food insecurity as being a climate issue, she co-founded the UConn Access to Food Effort (UCAFE). She soon created and distributed the first campus-wide food insecurity survey at any public college in the state. Her research has since been cited in U.S. Senator Chris Murphy’s ‘The Hidden Cost of College’ report and referenced in the creation of both state and federal policy.

Whilst simultaneously engaged in environmental research, Wawa continued her journey as a prominent youth climate activist in the state of Connecticut. She served as a lead organizer in Connecticut’s first Youth Climate Lobby Day, where over 100+ young people from around the state lobbied state legislatures to support environmental legislation. Her activism helped spark a resurgence of environmental activism at the University of Connecticut, where she was a leader in the successful push for UConn to become the first public university in the country to implement an environmental literacy general education requirement and shared her experiences with the UN as a United Nations Global Health Fellow. As the University's first Black student body vice president, she was selected by the University President as student co-chair of the University-wide Metanoia, where she led a steering committee of 20 faculty, staff, and administrators in the coordination of events and workshops across UConn’s undergraduate and graduate programming. For her commitment to environmental scholarship and leadership, Wawa became the 1st Rhodes Scholar in the history of the Connecticut public university school system. To date, she is the only Black person in history to have received the Rhodes, Truman and Udall Scholarships.

Academic Journey & Activism

Now

Wawa is the founder Black Girl Environmentalist, a national nonprofit committed dedicated to empowering Black girls, women and non-binary people in the climate movement. As Executive Director, she leads programming creating pathways for emerging climate leaders of color to thrive across climate disciplines in the areas of: community building, green workforce development, and narrative change. Under her leadership, BGE has grown as a trusted, national organization that has worked with 55 corporate and non-profit partners and hosted 38 events across our 10 HUB cities - in less than a year. In 2023 alone, BGE has been recognized in Vogue, the New York Times, NPR, Forbes, Essence, Teen Vogue, Axios, and more.

In addition to her work at Black Girl Environmentalist, Wawa is a popular climate content creator, boasting a following of 90,000+ across platforms. Her content focuses on debunking climate nihilism, highlighting the unique contributions of Black environmental leaders, and equipping her audience with action items to get involved in climate action. She was recently named a Climate Creator to Watch by Pique Action and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Wawa is also a frequent public speaker and writer, using her platform to communicate climate and environmental justice to people of all ages and backgrounds. She believes that everyone can be an environmentalist and has given keynotes to a diverse set of audiences, from Harvard University to Warner Music to AASHE’s Global Conference on Sustainability to various United Nations Activations.

Most recently, Wawa completed her time as Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, where she read for a MSc in Environmental Governance. Wawa is also a 776 Fellow under Alexis Ohanian, a Public Voices Fellow on the Climate Crisis with The OpEd Project, in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, Narrative Fellow at the All We Can Save Project, and a former 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. She sits on boards and advisory councils for Earth Justice, Environmental Media Association, the National Parks Conservation Association, Climate Power, and Sound Future.

In her free time, Wawa likes to produce music, cook plant-based meals with her partner, read and spend time with her senior kitties, George Mwangi and Beans Ndeithi.

Interested in working with Wawa?

Shoot an email to hello@wawagatheru.org.

Awards & Honors