Laura Diaz, Founder

Laura is the Director of EJ Forward.

Having grown up in a frontline environmental justice community in the San Francisco Bay Area, her work is centered on combating environmental injustice in partnership with members of her and other frontline communities. She co-leads Partners for Equity and Research at Sonoma State University, a Hispanic Serving Institute, where she trains and supports undergraduate researchers engaging in community-driven environmental justice research. Laura is a Ph.D. student in Environmental Health Sciences at UC Berkeley where she studies how biomarkers of mitochondrial dysfunction can shed light on the underpinnings between exposure to social and environmental stressors on atopic disease among children in frontline environmental justice communities. She is a former High School Educator and Science Friday Educator who understands the profound impact that educators play within their school communities and beyond.

Samrat Pathania

Samrat Pathania grew up in India. His childhood love for science and mathematics culminated in a degree in mechanical engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur (India). After working several years as a software engineer with various multinational corporations, Samrat became a teacher and currently teaches physics, mathematics, and software programming courses at Wallkill High School. He is a New York State Master Teacher Emeritus and was named the sole winner of the 2017 STEM Teacher Scholarship from the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. Samrat is former chair and coordinator of the New Paltz Climate Action Coalition and is a community energy coach with New Yorkers for Clean Power. He is a passionate advocate for inquiry-based and climate solutions-centered STEM education, inside and outside the classroom. Samrat leads the Mid-Hudson Sustainability in Education Series through the Mid-Hudson Teacher Center. He lives in New Paltz, NY with his family in a net-zero home.

Zoel Quiñónez

Dr. Zoel Quiñónez grew up in San Francisco’s Mission District, a predominantly Latino community historically and presently subjected to under-resourcing and disproportionately over-exposed to injustice. He is currently a Pediatric Cardiovascular Anesthesiologist and a clinical researcher at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford University and treasurer and board member of EJ Forward. His research focuses on outcomes evaluation in children undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease and on the integration of patient-centered outcomes in outcome metrics. He also focuses on equity and justice issues in the delivery of medical technologies and services related to the care of children. He currently uses geospatial analysis for mapping gaps in access to these services and technologies.