Carolina Martinez is the Organizing Director at California Green New Deal Coalition. She works together with community organizations, advocates, unions, and allies at the frontlines of the climate crisis committed to advancing Green Social Housing in California. She is currently working on the development of an Organizing School to train base-building organizations to co-create and practice innovative organizing models. For 15 years Carolina worked at the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) alongside environmental justice communities in the San Diego region to advance climate and land use policies that respect their priorities, improve health, and are consistent with environmental justice principles. In National City she collaborated with residents in the implementation of a comprehensive community plan that phased out polluting industries out of a residential neighborhood and created 201 brand new affordable homes. During her last years at EHC, she worked on a community-led effort to transform San Diego’s transit system into one that feeds the region’s livelihoods, reduces air pollution, and threads communities together via the San Diego Transportation Equity Working Group and the 10 Transit Lifelines.
Caro is a proud Colombian immigrant who enjoys working at the intersection of liberation, race, culture, gender, civic engagement, environmental issues, health, and city planning in the struggle for environmental justice. She has M.A.s in Urban Planning and Latin American Studies, and spends her free time learning to play Son Jarocho and dance Puerto Rican Bomba.