Our Team

Public Engagement

Ana Ramos currently lives in Armourdale, KS, she has served the Wyandotte community for over 17 years. As a member of Canaan Church and a volunteer at community centers, she has served her community as: Secretary, educator, community mobilizer, and health promoter. Her service has given her the opportunity to get to know her community and recognize the challenges it faces.

Her passion is to make a difference for the well-being of people. She recognizes the impact that the environment has on people’s comprehensive health and seeing the need in her community, and supports RISE for Environmental Justice mission and vision to advance environmental justice.

Atenas Isabel Mena born and raised in Kansas City is a proud first generation Mexican American. Ms. Mena received her Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from Avila University in 2014 and went on to receive her Master’s in Nursing Leadership from Missouri Western State University in 2019. In addition to working as a nurse, Ms. Mena received extensive environmental health training in the field, working with the Children’s Mercy environmental health team, as both an educator as well as a team coordinator. Ms. Mena worked continuously throughout the last few years on boots on the ground projects, and now serves in an advisory board capacity at RISE for Environmental Justice Atenas centers her work around reducing health inequities, educating communities on environmental health impacts, and empowering community members to have a voice and fight for equity and environmental justice

Environmental Justice Organizer

Beto is an environmental justice organizer and leads community led research and policy development at RISE for Environmental Justice. Beto serves to raise community voices in the fight against environmental racism and to overcome systemic exclusion of frontline communities from the decision making process. His lived experience, growing up fenceline to a petrochemical facility continues to drive his work at the intersection of environmental justice, climate and public health.

He is a founding member of the California Environmental Justice Coalition, and member of multiple national Climate & Environmental Justice networks including the Midwest Environmental Justice Network. Beto’s contributions to the movement include organizing, climate policy that prioritizes environmental justice communities. Beto has co-authored multiple academic publications on community based participatory research, air pollution, data accessibility, community engagement and presented his work in multiple NIEHS Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers.

He also serves on the advisory board for the American Public Health Association Center for Climate, Health and Equity, Health Effects Institute Advisory Board. He continues to serve in Southern California Center for Children’s Environmental Health Sciences Translational Research (SC-CCEHTR) and the Advisory Board for the Community Engagement Core of the Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center at USC (SCEHSC), He currently serves on the Federal Clean Air Act Advisory Committee representing frontline and fenceline perspective. He is committed to finding ways to improve environmental health literacy, and the integration of community led science and research to action through scican.org

Kansas City Resident

Bio coming soon!

lives in midtown Kansas City and is the Communications Director for the national environmental health network Coming Clean. She helped develop and launch the Chemical Incident Tracker, a national open-source database of chemical incidents in the US, and has prepared and contributed to several reports recommending policy changes that could address cumulative impacts of pollution, and require chemical facilities to implement enhanced pollution reduction and safety measures. She has a B.A from Amherst College and a M.A from Georgetown University, and serves as an advisory board member at RISE for Environmental Justice.

PhD Urban Planning

Urban planning researcher working at the intersection of urban planning and media studies. Actively collaborating with researchers, creatives, and community leaders to expand environmental justice knowledge while maintaining a strong commitment to student success, diversity, and sustainable community engagement. Areas of ExpertiseUrban Planning Environmental Justice Community Engagement Media Literacy Storytelling/Narratives Social/Racial Justice Urban History Marginalized Experiences

MPH

Jennifer grew up west of Chicago in the neighboring communities of Berwyn and Cicero, Illinois, both facing frequent urban flooding and surrounded by industrial corridors. She lived there until she moved to Los Angeles to pursue an undergraduate degree in public health and a master’s in biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Southern California. Her involvement in environmental justice began as an EH MATTERS Fellow at the Environmental Justice Research Lab under the mentorship of Dr. Jill Johnston.

In her role, she assists in community-based participatory research studies and develops solution-oriented bilingual educational materials on various environmental health topics. To democratize data and promote community science, she leads trainings on air monitoring to help community members track their personal and community exposures. She also supports community health education initiatives through her roles in USC’s Community Health Involvement Project and Health Sciences Education Program. Using her background in health education and public health, she plans to work towards climate justice and the reduction of disaster vulnerability.

Deputy Director of the Center for Climate, Health and Equity at the American Public Health Association

Katherine Catalano is the Deputy Director of the Center for Climate, Health and Equity at the American Public Health Association. Katherine is a communicator, strategic planner, and leader with a decade of experience in climate policy, advocacy, and education across sectors and audiences with a particular focus on centering justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in every aspect of the climate movement.

Katherine is passionate about applying her skills and experience to affect change and bring stakeholders together to advocate for climate justice and equitable health outcomes. She received both her Bachelor’s in environmental science and policy and her Master’s in applied American politics and policy from Florida State University.

Environmental Sociologist and Civic Scientist

She is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Sociology and Environment & Sustainability at SUNY University at Buffalo. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Northeastern University and is a former high school science teacher. As an environmental sociologist and civic scientist, she works with communities near industrial activity such as fracking to monitor their air for contaminants.

She also serves on the Coordinating Committee of the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, envisioning and building digital tools and research infrastructures for environmental data justice. Her interdisciplinary work spans environmental health, social science, and critical theory.

Community Organizer

Yazmin Bruno-Valdez, is a community organizer in Kansas City, focusing on advocating for marginalized communities within Wyandotte County. She is a member of RISE for Environmental Justice and volunteer at several other local nonprofits that focus on the advancement of people of color. She is also a junior at Rockhurst University, studying Political Science and Non-Profit Management. Yazmin is passionate about environmental, immigration, and housing justice in Kansas City, and plans to study law to uplift her community.

SPANISH: Yazmin Bruno-Valdez es una organizadora comunitaria en Kansas City que se enfoca en defender a las comunidades marginadas dentro del condado de Wyandotte. Es parte de el equipo de RISE for Environmental Justice y voluntaria en otras organizaciones locales sin fines de lucro que se enfocan en el avance de las personas de color. También es estudiante de tercer año en la Universidad de Rockhurst, estudiando Ciencias Políticas y Gestión sin fines de lucro. Yazmin es una apasionada de los problemas ambientales, de inmigración y de vivienda en Kansas City, y planea estudiar derecho para mejorar su comunidad.