We are excited to welcome Mia Montoya Hammersley as the Center’s first Director of Climate Justice. Mia is committed to expanding the Center’s work in equitable building electrification and her expertise will allow us to explore new areas. She hopes to support state and local governments in effectively responding to and preparing for climate disasters, ensuring those least resourced are not left behind. We look forward to Mia joining the Center full-time at the end of July.

“We are beyond excited to have Mia as our first Director of Climate Justice," said Daniel Carpenter Gold, a Senior Staff Attorney on our Climate Justice team. "The need for our work has never been greater, and Mia's experience leading impactful community-centered work, as well as her expertise and lived experience in environmental justice and Indian law, will be transformative for our team."

As a multiracial Indigenous person growing up in Arizona with family based in Tularosa, New Mexico, Mia developed an early understanding of environmental justice. She is a member of the state-recognized Piro-Manso-Tiwa Indian Tribe, Pueblo of San Juan de Guadalupe, and a Yoeme (Yaqui) descendant. In 1945, the first nuclear weapon was detonated 45 miles from her grandparents’ homes, leaving lasting impacts on her family and community. This experience became key in her awareness of environmental racism and raised the critical question, “which communities are sacrificed for the benefit of others?”

After attending Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, Mia soon transferred to Franklin University in Switzerland. As the first in her family to travel to Europe, she had the opportunity to study and travel with professors across several countries. While there, Mia considered a career with the United Nations, given her proximity to international environmental policy. However, being abroad deepened her sense of the “responsibility we all have to the places that we’re from.” She knew that water access and resource management remained serious issues in the Southwest and shifted her focus from international policy to a more community-based approach.

After graduating and returning to Arizona, she began pursuing a master’s degree in water, society, and policy. Her thesis focused on the power dynamics in a water-sharing agreement. There, she learned how frequently Tribes and community groups are left out of the conversation. “I was really interested in how you can use the law to empower some of these groups that have been systematically disenfranchised for a long time,” she said. This interest led her to law school, where she completed certificates in Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy and Environmental Law, Science, and Policy. She also co-founded a student-led organization that fundraises to provide stipends to law students who accept unpaid public interest work over the summer. In 2023, she was honored with a named endowment for her efforts.

Her Indigenous identity remains close to her approach in all her work. Mia is guided by the seven generations principle, allowing her to redefine success, even with systemic barriers. “My work is part of a lineage. People have done this work before me, and there will be people who come after me who build on what I'm doing. This helps to center me in difficult times,” she said.

In her recent role as the Director of the Environmental Justice Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School, Mia was invited to draft an amicus brief for Held v. State of Montana, a landmark case brought by 16 youth plaintiffs who argued that their constitutional rights were being violated by the state’s promotion and use of fossil fuels. She and her students helped write the brief on behalf of several federally recognized Tribes in the state, helping educate the court about the rights of Tribal nations in Montana’s environment. In a historic decision, the plaintiffs won the case, marking a significant victory for Tribal and environmental justice. For Mia, the experience highlighted how essential it is to represent Tribal interests and the importance of state-level advocacy, especially in such an unprecedented time when federal courts can feel inhospitable.

In 2021, she was a recipient of the Young, Gifted, and Green 40 Under 40 Award by Black Millennials for Flint for her work in the field of environmental justice.

Learn more about our Climate Justice work here.