Christine Nieves is a Puerto Rican community organizer and climate change activist. She is the founder of Emerge Puerto Rico, a community redevelopment non-profit. Nieves focuses on building community resilience before and after environmental disasters, such as

Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was a deadly Category 5 hurricane that devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly Dominica, Saint Croix, and Puerto Rico. It is regarded as the worst natural disaster in recorded history to affec ...

in 2017 and the series of earthquakes in Puerto Rico in 2020. Her organization, formerly called Apoyo Mutuo Mariana, provided free meals for a mountainous community that was heavily impacted by the storm.

Education

Nieves attended the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

for her bachelor's degree. She later earned a master's degree at University of

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

Activism

Nieves emphasizes the importance of community and self-sufficiency when preparing for climate change, in part because of the lack of government assistance after Hurricane Maria. Nieves has worked with "anarchist organizers" to accomplish greater community independence. She also speaks about mental health and challenges that come after disasters. Nieves founded Emerge Puerto Rico, a "climate change leadership startup" and non-profit. She gave a talk about her work toward community-based resilience at

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in 2018. She is a 2020 Echoing Green fellow.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nieves, Christine TED (conference) American climate activists Year of birth missing (living people) People from Ponce, Puerto Rico Activists from London Puerto Rican women activists Puerto Rican environmentalists Puerto Rican women environmentalists 21st-century American writers 21st-century Puerto Rican women writers University of Pennsylvania alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford American nonprofit chief executives Women nonprofit executives Living people 21st-century American women