Justin J Harris serves as the principal senior advisor to the Climate Equity Collaborative (CEC). He also serves as CEC’s principal senior advisor to the National Wildlife Federation, the most trusted conservation organization in the United States. Prior to joining the CEC, Mr. Harris was a Senior Program Manager with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of International Affairs. At EPA, he established the agency’s second largest international program with direct oversight of programs addressing children’s health, climate change, marine litter, e-waste management, enforcement/governance, and environmental education. Mr. Harris also established one of the agency’s earliest initiatives fusing equity, education, and international opportunities for young people from tribal communities and other underserved groups.
Before entering the environmental space, Mr. Harris worked internationally in the Asia-Pacific in the education and human resources field. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and graduated with an M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Justin also completed his executive education at the Harvard Business Analytics Program in 2022.
Kim Martinez, M.Ed., serves as the Vice President of Education and Engagement at the National Wildlife Federation and Senior Advisor to the Climate Equity Collaborative. In this role, she oversees a team responsible for the development and delivery of pre-K-12, higher education, youth leadership, and community programs serving more than 15,000 schools in the U.S. and is partner to a network of more than 65,000 schools in 70 countries.
She previously established and managed the National Wildlife Federation’s Mid-Atlantic Region’s education programs and later served as the National Senior Director of Education where she was responsible for the Eco-Schools USA, Schoolyard Habitats, Young Reporters for the Environment, Learning About Forests, Connecting Kids to Nature, EcoLeaders, EcoCareers, and RecycleMania programs.
Ms. Martinez earned her B.S. and teaching credential from the University of California, Riverside and received her Master’s Degree in School Administration from Azusa Pacific University. She was a classroom teacher and Administrator of Teacher Professional Development at the Center for Teacher Innovation at the Riverside County Office of Education in California where she supported 92 school districts in four counties. She was also an adjunct instructor in the School of Education at the University of California, Riverside. Her passion and commitment to conservation and education stems from childhood experiences spent camping, fishing, and exploring the natural environment. She currently lives with her husband and daughters on the Chesapeake Bay in Edgewater, Maryland.
Ms. Martinez is an advisor to multiple partner initiatives including the Global Environmental Education Partnership, ee360, and the Green Schools National Conference. She contributed to revising the North American Association for Environmental Education’s K-12 Environmental Education: Guidelines for Excellence. Kim has served as the Foundation for Environmental Education’s national operator for the Eco-Schools program in the United States, and participated in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Information Programs, which supports people-to-people conversations with foreign publics on U.S. policy priorities including Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math pedagogy for teachers.
Martha Peragine Berger serves as the Senior Director for Children’s Environmental Health for the Climate Equity Collaborative. Martha comes to CEC from the US Environmental Protection Agency, where she established relationships both domestic and international, working with partners in health and in environment to promote understanding, design and run programs, foster research and research translation on environment and health interactions during all the stages of early life, from the reproductive period and through childhood.
Ms. Berger ran the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee as the designated federal official for many years and was the EPA manager of the interagency Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units program in partnership with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. From 2014 to 2017 as co-Chair of the climate change subcommittee of the President’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to children, she contributed to the USGCRP Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment by ensuring that each chapter include prenatal and childhood exposure and health effects and is an author on the chapter on vulnerable populations.
Ms. Berger has authored a variety of publications and has presented many times in public health and environmental health fora in the US and around the world. She is especially honored that the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units have established an award in her name. Martha has a bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies from Vanderbilt University and a master’s in public administration from the University of New Orleans School of Urban and Regional Studies.
Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, MPH, serves as the Executive Director for the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN) and Senior Advisor to the Climate Equity Collaborative, where her responsibilities include successfully organizing, leading, and managing policy, education/training, and science-related programs. For the past 21 years, she has served as a key spokesperson for children’s vulnerabilities and the need for their protection, conducting presentations and lectures across the country.
She is a leader in the field of children’s environmental health, serving on the External Science Board for the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) NIH Research work. She is a Co-Leader the Health/Science initiative of the Cancer Free Economy Network and Co-Chair of the National Environmental Health Partnership Council. Ms. Witherspoon is also the Board Chair for the Pesticide Action Network of North America, Board Member for the Environmental Integrity Project, and serves on the Maryland Children’s Environmental Health Advisory Council.
Ms. Witherspoon has held past appointments on the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee for the Environmental Protection Agency, the NIH Council of Councils, the Science Advisory Board for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Board for the American Public Health Association. She is a past member of the National Association of Environmental Health Sciences Council and the Institute of Medicine’s Environmental Health Sciences Roundtable.
Ms. Witherspoon has a variety of publications and has the distinct honor of having one of CEHN’s leadership awards, the Nsedu Obot Witherspoon (NOW) Youth Leadership Award, named in her honor. She is also the recent recipient of the William R. Reilly Award in Environmental Leadership from the Center for Environmental Policy at American University and the Snowy Egret Award from the Eastern Queens Alliance.
Ms. Witherspoon has a B.S. in Biology Pre-Med from Siena College and a M.P.H. in Maternal and Child Health from The George Washington University, School of Public Health and Health Services. She is a proud mom to 4 children.
